[A]n email requesting a Vermont environmental activist remove links on her web page to corporate information was sent in error, officials with the company Omya said.
A Swiss law firm sent the email to activist Annette Smith asking her to remove web pages identifying the owners of the company — first posted more than 10 years ago.
The Nov. 25 email from an attorney at Battegay, Dürr, Wagner in Basel written “on behalf of Omya Management AG” requested that Smith remove two links from her website, both containing identifying information about the company’s owners, Max Andre and Eric Schachenmann.
“Omya Management AG is not a listed company, in which the ownership is legally disclosed,” the attorney wrote. “It is absolutely against their personal rights that these informations (sic) are published on your website.” The story was first reported in the Rutland Herald, which has covered Omya for years. The company has operations in Rutland County.
The law firm threatened legal action if Smith did not reply within five days and said its U.S. partner firm had been informed. CSG Global, a telecommunications company based in Pennsylvania, was also included on the email.
Smith, who has kept close tabs on Omya’s facility in the Florence area of Pittsford and its corporate ownership structure, removed the names of the company’s owners. Omya owns a number of marble deposits in Vermont, including in Middlebury, and has produced calcium carbonate at its Florence facility since the late 1970s. The company’s headquarters moved from Vermont to Ohio in 2007.
For well over a decade Smith has documented Omya’s environmental record in Vermont and written extensively about the company on her website. She has long opposed the development of an Omya marble deposit in Danby and said she had a gentleman’s agreement with the company’s former Americas CEO, Anthony Colak, not to exploit it.
“I’ve had to deal with Omya a lot over the years,” Smith said. “At this point I got to thinking who would even care about this.” Colak recently stepped down from his position at Omya and has been replaced by Rainer Siedler, who was formerly executive vice president of sales and marketing at Omya International.
Smith said she contacted a couple of lawyers with expertise in corporate law and that they saw no legal basis for asking her to remove the information.
James Lyall, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Vermont, said the company does not appear to have any legal basis to threaten litigation. “Maybe the (owners) are unaware of the robust First Amendment protections we enjoy in this country, or maybe they just wanted to bully their critics. Either way, they and their lawyers should know better,” Lyall said.
However, Smith said she didn’t want to expose her organization to “frivolous litigation” and refrained from even responding to the email. Smith, the subject of a recent investigation by the attorney general’s office for allegedly practicing law without a license, said she was wary of another messy legal battle.
“I learned during the attorney general’s investigation even when you’re innocent it costs you,” Smith said. “I certainly didn’t want to tangle with Omya.” The AG’s office closed the investigation and took no action, saying that relevant case law was outdated.
According to Malsch, there were no legal issues associated with the information on Smith’s website though the company does not discuss its shareholders or ownership structure. Malsch said the company would’ve preferred to address the matter directly with Smith’s organization and that the letter should not have been sent. Asked why it was, Malsch said it would be inappropriate for him to speculate about that.
“We’ve received assurance that they’re no longer involved with us on this topic,” Malsch said, referring to the Swiss law firm. “It was a misunderstanding that the letter was sent. It was an error.”
Battegay, Dürr, Wagner did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Malsch, who said he had reached out to Smith, emphasized that the company has had a good relationship with her organization in recent years. Smith agrees and said she hasn’t had any issues with the company nor has there been much news out of Omya in years.
“Omya has stayed below the radar, and somebody was pretty stupid to send me that email,” she said.
