Digital industry lobby spending rose from €113 million in 2023 to €151 million in 2025, an increase of 33.6%, according to a new study by Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl, based on the EU transparency register, published on Wednesday 29 October.
This increase is even more pronounced than in 2021, when lobbying expenditure amounted to €97 million, “an increase of 55.6% in four years”.
According to the two associations, this firepower in the digital industry’s lobbying armoury can be seen in all digital-related sectors - from consumer law to telecommunications - and has a direct impact on major European legislation, namely the AI Regulation, which is the target of a ‘pause’ campaign (see EUROPE 13728/3), as well as the DSA and the DMA (see EUROPE 13700/13).
The latter are the target of virulent attacks from the Trump administration, which describes them as discriminating against US companies, and the European Commission is preparing to unveil a major simplification of its digital regulations.
Meta, Microsoft and Apple are the top three companies in terms of lobbying expenditure, with Meta spending €10 million per year and Microsoft and Apple spending €7 million each. Artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Mistral AI are also contributing to the increase in spending on digital lobbying, with their recent arrival in Brussels.
According to the data collected, five of the six companies that spend the most on lobbying in Europe are “tech companies”.
To see the study: https://aeur.eu/f/j6y (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)