News

Amazon rigs the vote by using two different formulas when counting: one that favors the board election, and another that under-counts shareholder items.

Amazon's proxy engages in Formula Swapping – it uses a favorable vote-counting formula for management's board election, but a more repressive formula to count shareholder proposals. This inconsistent treatment disproportionately benefits management while depressing the tally on shareholder items. This puts stockholders at risk, and reflects the faulty logic that a Company can divine voter intent.

In a landmark decision, the European Union announced an agreement on March 7th 2019 that will require institutional investors and advisors to consider and make public disclosures regarding the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts of their investment products.

For the first time, GE has agreed to robust disclosure of payments made to trade associations and secretive “social welfare” organizations, also known as 501(c)(4) groups – payments that might be used for election-related purposes. Investor Voice filed a shareholder proposal in September that urged the company to embrace greater transparency by disclosing such payments.

In public comments delivered to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investor Voice urged the Agency to resist pressure from self-interested corporations and their lobbyists to cripple the shareholder engagement provisions of the proxy process.