The Brussels organisation Corporate Europe Observatory fears the digital industry’s powerful influence on the future Digital Services Act and the update of competition rules. In a report published on Wednesday, 23 September, the NGO stresses that GAFAM have substantial means at their disposal, with lobbying expenditures that are twice as high as those of the automobile industry.
Based on figures available in the EU lobby database Lobbyfacts.eu, the CEO claims that Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple (GAFAM) spend around €21 million a year lobbying. Google leads the way with €8 million spent (2018 figures), followed by Microsoft with €5 million (2019 figures). Facebook comes in fifth place with €4.25 million, just after oil giant Shell and pharmaceutical company Bayer. Corporate Europe Observatory points out that these giants are also members of associations such as DIGITALEUROPE, which have their own lobbying expenditures.
Think tanks and privileged access
These substantial means enable the digital giants to make their voices heard, particularly through think tanks or meetings with high-level Commission representatives.
Since 2014, the CEO has counted 254 meetings with the Commission—that being the highest number of meetings with a private company. Moreover, the observatory laments the lack of transparency concerning the support that certain companies provide think tanks and even their membership in these think tanks. It shows, for example, that Facebook in particular has worked with several think tanks (CERRE, Bruegel, EPC, Friends of Europe, Lisbon Council, and TPN) without disclosing its involvement.
Ms Yon-Courtin threatens to ban GAFAM from the European Parliament
On 10 September, Renew Europe MEP Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (France) sent a request to the chair of the Committee on Economic Affairs (ECON) for a hearing of the heads of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple before the European Parliament so as to question them on “their anti-competitive practices and the challenges involved in the taxation of digital companies”.
In an interview given to the press, she then called on her colleagues to take a hard line in the event they refuse. “If they refuse to talk to us, we will close the doors of Parliament to them. We will be able to deny their lobby or their representatives access to Parliament and/or the Commission through the Transparency Register. Their numerous teams of lobbyists will then no longer have any interlocutors”, she explained to EUROPE. Link to the CEO’s report: https://bit.ly/33YYzJh (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)