back to article Hey, big vendor: Oracle, Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook blow even more cash on lobbying

American tech giants have ramped up the amount of cash they spend on lobbying US lawmakers to get their own way, yet again. As congressmen consider regulating organizations from Facebook to Google, and mull antitrust crackdowns against Amazon, said corporations have responded by flinging more dosh at the problem. The money is …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "For the full figures, check out this table we made of US lobbying spending, from the companies' official filings. ®"

    It requires you to sign into spyware central. Just to view something?! No thanks....

    1. Mark 110

      We should have a law like that in the UK - that would make really interesting reading.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        We should have a law like that in the UK - that would make really interesting reading.

        There is a UK Lobbying Register, and (as ever) a civil servant who glories in the title of Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists. However, a simple search of the register for terms like Amazon, Alphabet, Google produced precisely zero results (I didn't dig down further to see if there's more detail that would help). Membership appears to be voluntary, so they might as well not have bothered.

        Ministers have to disclose companies they've met with, but civil servants, regulators and other parts of the apparatus of government don't have the same obligation. So you needn't meet with politicians at all, and could influence policy by meetings with the bureaucrats - in fact, in my work alongside the "corporate affairs" team of a large company, I can assure you that actual face to face engagement with politicians is probably less than 5% of all lobbying activity. Take the recent proposals announced by government to change stamp duty on houses to include some complicated energy efficiency element. That was announced by government as their proposal, but I know where it came from, and who it came from, and they are a senior manager in a large energy company. The energy company are trying to loosen their obligations under various government energy efficiency requirements, and this idea was floated through influential industry talking shops, then with regulators, then with civil servants, who in turn drip feed it to the politicians, who then adopt it. Nobody agreed a back room deal face to face with a minister, or even a backbencher. But you can see that the lobbying was subtle, invisible and effective.

        And that's part of the problem - lobbying is not just about direct contacts with politicians, or necessarily the civil servants - using third parties, tame academics or industry working groups is often the most effective way of influencing government. And that makes me deeply suspicious of the reported lobbying figures from these companies - on the basis of my UK knowledge, I reckon that they will be correct by the official US definitions of lobbying, but in reality are out by something like an order of magnitude.

        1. Mage Silver badge

          UK Lobbying Register

          Also they spend millions on EU lobbying.

          Note the USA figures may only be PART of what they spend in USA. Makes you wonder what Apple is at? Don't they make enough already from their magical iPhone?

          Twitter is low probably because they don't have the money.

    2. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      re: anonymous

      Erg, IT cockup. Screw it, it's embedded as an image. Let's go old school.

      C.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: re: anonymous

        What happened with sticking the file on your own website to download, or is that too old fashioned these days?

  2. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Pint

    And this is why net neutrality will eventually be lost. The corps can lose many times, but only have to win once.

    It is now beer o'clock. Good night.

  3. ecofeco Silver badge

    The best gov money can buy

    Why anyone, ANYONE believes American government supports anyone but the rich is beyond me.

    Let me tell you, any benefits the citizens see are accidental by-products.

    1. Youngone Silver badge

      Re: The best gov money can buy

      @ ecofeco

      You are certainly not wrong, but to be fair to Amazon, Facebook and all the others, they are just making use of the system as it is designed.

      That has been obvious since the oil industry wrote George II's energy policy.

    2. jmch Silver badge

      Re: The best gov money can buy

      The money declared on lobbying is just what they pay to the lobbyists to operate. I would guess that besides lobbyists' salaries and bonuses that is mostly entertainment and hospitality for the politicians being lobbied to. I wonder about the undeclared money that goes directly or indirectly to the politicians themselves.

      It is actually amazing not that politicians are so easily influenced, but how cheaply. These companies are making billions in profits, it's not difficult to imagine that hundreds of millions of those profits are a result of a few million (chump change for these companies) spent on lobbying. By ROI% it's surely the most effectively spent money that these companies spend.

  4. dmacleo

    hmm...

    For the full figures, check out this table we made of US lobbying spending, from the companies' official filings. ®

    Sponsored: The Joy and Pain of Buying IT - Have Your Say

    ...........

    yeah,,,,,

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A tale of two lobbyists

    Facebook, Google, and Apple are (presumably) lobbying for stuff that favors their business (i.e. net neutrality, not making some crazy anti-encryption laws, etc.) not trying to get the government to give them more money / protect the money the government is currently giving them like Oracle.

  6. PhilipN Silver badge

    Headline channelling Shirley Bassey?

    Just how old are your subs, El Reg?

  7. a_yank_lurker

    Mark Twain

    "I suppose one can show be facts and figures that Congress is America's native criminal class." is very apropos here. Been true since before the Civil War.

  8. Mark 85

    I'm surprised at Amazon. Are they pushing to have the antitrust laws repealed?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple's Increase

    So far in 2017, the iPhone maker has spent $5.46m bending lawmakers' ears.

    That might well be down to fighting the FBI over access to the iPhone.

    Their stance on privacy is good for the whole phone market. Imagine the total mauling that Apple would have got from Wall St (and even worse here..?) if they had caved in and given the Feds a backdoor into the data on every iPhone... That would have soon spread to Android devices and then where would 90% of us be eh?

    Not a huge fan of Apple but their concerns for user data privacy is IMHO their one redeming quality.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why the shock? We’re a capitalist democracy...

    Everyone is created equal, but we only respect the all mighty dollar.

    Oops... that philosophy got us Trump as President.

    But not to worry, this is all the “above board” stuff.

    Hey look there’s Saudi Arabia... wow what a large wallet you have.

    Who would you like us to invade next? Yes... don’t worry about it, we’re willing to spend lives for dollars. Great! We have the perfect location for your new hotel all picked out.

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