The lawsuits name ISS's owners, Deutsche Börse and General Atlantic, and reference ISS's prior legal challenges to state disclosure laws, including Texas S.B. 2337, which requires proxy advisers to disclose when recommendations account for nonfinancial factors. Florida's attorney general has filed a similar suit against ISS and Glass Lewis. The full scope of the complaints and ISS's response remain under development.
Proxy advisers influence how institutional investors vote on corporate matters, making this dispute material to the governance market. The cases test whether states can use consumer-protection law to regulate proxy-advice content and disclosure, and whether ESG-oriented recommendations must be labeled as advocacy rather than neutral analysis. Attorneys advising institutional investors, proxy firms, or companies subject to proxy votes should monitor these filings closely, as outcomes could reshape disclosure obligations and state regulatory authority over the proxy-advice industry.