(The Center Square) – Consumer advocacy group Consumers’ Research sent a letter Friday to 75 various companies warning of legal consequences if they do not end their memberships in politically “radical” plastic organizations that drive up costs and reduce quality of products for consumers.

Executive director of Consumers’ Research Will Hild told The Center Square that his group “is putting companies on notice that by colluding with organizations like the U.S. Plastics Pact, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, and the Consumer Goods Forum, they are prioritizing a political agenda over their consumers.”

“Plastics initiatives are not about lowering costs for consumers, they are about using political ideology to eliminate products, reduce quality, and drive-up costs on goods,” Hild said

“This is why we are asking companies to end their affiliations with these radical groups and reevaluate commitments to radical climate policies and initiatives,” Hild said.

“For example, Costco injects wokeness through its company by running a supplier diversity program that sorts businesses by race and LGBTQ+ status, has committed to 100% clean energy by 2035, ties executive bonuses to DEI metrics, and earned the enthusiastic endorsement of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network for its refusal to retreat from its woke agenda,” Hild said.

“Similarly, Microsoft and HP have kept woke policies embedded in their companies,” Hild said.

“Our letter makes clear that companies who have not received formal investigative demands should not assume they are safe, and any company that continues down this path does so at its own risk,” Hild said.

“No company should expect to get a pass simply because it hasn’t yet received a formal investigative demand for their membership in these plastics orgs,” Hild said.

In its letter, Consumers’ Research put companies such as Costco and Microsoft plus others like Aldi, Amazon, General Mills, S.C. Johnson and dozens more on “formal notice regarding serious potential antitrust and related legal exposure arising from participation in coordinated plastics-related initiatives.”

Consumers’ Research’s letter follows Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s multi-state coalition that put the same 75 companies with associations to the U.S. Plastics Pact, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, and the Consumer Goods Forum on notice “for their involvement in practices that potentially violate antitrust and consumer protection laws.”

Consumers’ Research Friday asked these companies to cease participation in “any coordinated effort to eliminate, phase out, or boycott categories of plastic or plastic-containing products where the conduct is not the result of truly independent, unilateral business judgment.”

Additionally, Consumers’ Research advised these companies to “preserve all potentially relevant documents and communications” as Hild likewise noted, and to “undertake a prompt legal review…of your company’s memberships, commitments, communications, implementation steps, and past or present participation in these [plastic] initiatives.”