Lobbying in Europe

Lobbying in the United States

Main article: Lobbying in the United States

2021: IT giants spend €97m a year lobbying their interests

At the end of August 2021, the costs of leading IT companies to lobby their interests in the European Union became known. Large sums should be a wake-up call for EU politicians to strengthen lobbying bills and rules, warn the authors of a study by groups from the Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl. The technology sector is many times superior to the pharmaceutical, financial and chemical sectors. In 2010, the pharmaceutical and financial sectors dominated lobbying in the EU, the report said, but their era was over.

Google, Facebook and Microsoft are the three biggest lobbyists in Europe to fight tough new laws that are inherently aimed at restricting U.S. tech giants from the EU market.

The study showed that 612 companies, groups and associations spend more than €97 million ($114 million) annually on lobbying for EU policy in the field of the digital economy. The data was submitted by companies to the EU Transparency Register until mid-June 2021.

Google topped the list of companies, spending €5.75 million, followed by Facebook - €5.54 million, Microsoft - €5.25 million, Apple - €3.67 million, Huawei Technologies - €3 million and Amazon in sixth place with €2.75 million, the study said.

European IT giants spend €97 million a year lobbying their interests

Google and Huawei responded that they provide data on their lobbying activities to the EU transparency register.

We have a clear policy of protecting the independence of the people and organizations we sponsor, including the requirement to disclose information about financing and directly their work activities, the email from Google says.

Microsoft also clarified that the European Union was and remains an important market for their company and they want to be a constructive and transparent partner for European politicians.

Technology lobbying focuses on two key pieces of legislation:

• Digital Markets Act, which contains a before and after list for tech giants;

• Digital Services Act, requires companies to make more efforts to control content on their platforms.

The report also noted the important role played by trade and business associations, think tanks and even some political parties in promoting the narrative of the tech industry.^[1]

2019: Unaoil pleads guilty in bribery case for customer companies

After a journalistic investigation, the US Department of Justice launched an investigation, the details of which were not disclosed until 2019. The investigation found that Unaoil was a major intermediary for Western companies that paid bribes to obtain energy contracts around the world. For more details see Unaoil

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