Source: Fortune
New figures show how Apple Inc approximately doubled its EU spending lobbying to way over $7 million. The figures revealed how the spending doubled between October 2020 and September 2021 showcasing the massive jump. The EU Transparency Register disclosed the spending to be somewhere between 6.5 and 7 million euros in that year. Moreover, they likely employed a host of intermediaries which included 21 people involved in various activities.
Reports from Politco revealed the findings of a researchers speaking to them about the update. They remarked how much is declared in the updated by Big Tech about ‘spending to lobby’ the European Union. This is while it prepared key new rules such as the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, and the Artificial Intelligence Act. Margarida Silva of Corporate Europe Observatory further mentioned about how other tech giants also increased their lobbying budgets as expected. During these period, along with Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft increased their lobbying budgets. The year before, Apple spent 3,7 million euros as mentioned in the report. On the other hand, it spent lower than a million euros way back in 2014.
What else did the report reveal?
Authorities conducted a more detailed review of the figures of the transparency register. It showed the essential legislative proposals Apple Inc aimed at, as anticipated. The proposals were the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, along with legislation with respect to privacy. Moreover, it also involved CSAM, sustainable consumption of goods, packaging, batteries, and much more.
Crucially, the Atlantic Council held a dinner at Brussels on September 7. This was in collaboration with Apple Inc, mainly with the tech giant’s Chief Privacy Officer Jane Horvath. The dinner was firstly, to “facilitate a discussion with Brussels based stakeholders” on the European Union’s latests attempts to control platforms, along with the implications for privacy and security. Secondly, to inform policy makers of the European Union about the tech giant’s “approach to privacy.”
The records of the EU further reveal how the representative for the tech company met with representative of the EU commissions about 15 times last year. Additionally, the representatives also met once till now in 2022. However, most of these meetings took place virtually, by means of video conference or WEBEX. Owing to the current state of matters, they refrained from conducting in person meetings for most of it. Currently, it is not clear if they are planning to meet anytime soon.
