Observatoire des multinationales

Description

The Observatoire des multinationales (Multinationals Observatory) is an independent online investigative media outlet based in Paris, France. It focuses on large corporations and, more broadly, on economic powers and their relationships with political authority. It was co-founded in 2013 by Ivan du Roy and Olivier Petitjean.

Between 2013 and 2022 it was published by the association Alter-medias, which also publishes the news site basta!. Since mid-2022 it has been published by its own association, the Observatoire des multinationales, directed by Olivier Petitjean. Its salaried team includes Olivier Petitjean, Anne-Sophie Simpere, Sandra Muller and an apprentice, alongside freelance contributors and past authors. The Observatory produces news articles, investigations and reports, and also offers training and services.

Its stated mission is to develop independent information on corporations and economic powers and their relations with political power, and to defend freedom of expression and the right to information. It also pushes for regulation of lobbying and challenges excessive corporate influence on public decisions. It presses for fairer relations between states and multinationals on subsidies, taxation and privatisation, and fights economic concentration and oligopolies.

It supports a political response to the climate emergency, denounces greenwashing, and promotes remunicipalisation of public services. It defends workers’ rights and democracy inside companies, and promotes respect for human rights and international humanitarian law across multinational companies’ value chains. It frames this work around a vision it calls economic democracy.

The Observatory is funded by private foundations, individual reader donations and paid training services, with no government, EU or corporate funding. Its 2025 budget was around 200,000 euros.