Corporate Europe Observatory and Lobbycontrol published a report today that outlines the scale of tech industry spending to influence EU tech policy. It found that hundreds of businesses, groups, and business associations spent a combined total of 97M ($115M) each year lobbying EU institutions.
According to the report of the two lobbying transparency campaigns groups, tech is the largest lobby sector in the region, ahead of finance, pharma, fossil fuels and chemicals.
The EU is working on a variety of digital legislation, including the Digital Markets Act. This will apply ex ante controls at the largest gatekeeper platforms in order to promote fair competition in digital markets by outlawing many abusive practices. And the Digital Services Act will raise requirements on large digital businesses, with more requirements for larger platforms. These laws will try to bring online rules in line to offline requirements, such as illegal products and content.
Brussels-based legislators are also interested in tackling online disinformation and threats that threaten democratic processes, such as updating EU rules for political ads run online and tighter regulation regarding online ad targeting generally.
The bloc is also working to agree a risk-based framework that will allow for the application of artificial intelligence.
Another important EU regulatory focus is data reuse.
However, tech giants could be interested in influencing regional policy. Tech giants might also want to influence enforcement of EU's data protection framework (GDPR), which is widely believed to have been (mostly), weakly applied against tech titans. This is because uniformly strong enforcement could threaten surveillance-based business models of online advertising giants such as Google and Facebook.
Multiple GDPR complaints against the pair remain unresolved at Ireland's Data Protection Commission.
According to the report, a small group of tech giants dominate EU lobbying. The report found that ten companies account for nearly a third of total EU spending. These include Google, Facebook and Microsoft as well as Apple, Huawei, Amazon. IBM, Intel, Qualcomm, Vodafone, and IBM. They collectively spend more 32M per year trying to influence EU tech policy.
According to the report, Google was the top lobbyist of Big Tech Big Spenders in the EU. They spent 5.8M per year trying to influence EU institutions. Apple (3.5M), Microsoft (5.3M), and Huawei (3.5M) were close behind.
It is not surprising that US-based tech companies dominate EU industry lobbying. The report found that a fifth of companies lobbying for digital policy in the bloc are US-based, although it suggests that the true percentage may be higher.
The total number of companies based in China or Hong Kong was less than 1%. This suggests that Chinese tech firms have not yet invested in EU lobbying at the same level as their counterparts in the US.
The EU's attempt to rein in Big Tech is illustrated by the lobbying around the Digital Services Pack. High-ranking officials from the Commission held 271 meetings with industry lobbyists, with 75 percent of them being with Commission officials. The pack was led by Google and Facebook, who also wrote the two transparency campaign groups.
This report also highlights how the tech industry relies on astroturfing in order to push for favored policies. Tech companies lobby individually, but are also organized into a network that includes trade and business associations.
According to the report, the lobbying budget for Big Tech by business associations is far greater than that of the top 75 percent of digital companies.
This structure allows the richest tech companies to push their preferred policy positions. They can also fund these associations to gain industry support. This gives them a huge influence on their lobbying output.
Big Techs lobbying relies on the funding of a large network of third parties including think tanks and SME and startup associations, as well as law and economic consultancies, to push its messages. The links are not always disclosed, which can lead to potential biases or conflicts of interests. The pair then highlighted 14 think tanks and non-governmental organizations that had close ties with Big Tech companies.
Although the ethics and practices of these policy organizations vary, some appear to have been particularly active in discussions around the Digital Services Pack, hosting exclusive or skewed conversations on behalf of their funders, or publishing scaremongering stories, they continue.
This is where the opacity problem lies: Big Tech companies have not done well in disclosing their funding for think tanks, mostly only after being forced to. Even so, this disclosure is incomplete. Big Tech funds SME and start-up associations. This is in addition to the fact that Big Tech has hired law and economic professionals who participate in policy discussions.
CERRE, EPC. CEPS. CER, Bruegel and Friends of Europe are the 14 think tanks and NGOs that the report links with Big Tech backers.
We reached out to the largest tech companies that spend heavily on this report for their comments. We will update this article with any responses.
We also reached out the European Commission to get their feedback.
The complete report, entitled The Lobby Network - Big Techs Web Of Influence in Europe can be found here.
