Google Tripled Spending on Lobbying in Brussels In 2014

Google tripled its spending on lobbying in Brussels in 2014, most likely making it one of the largest spenders in the administrative center of the European Union. News of the increase came shortly after a continuing antitrust case came to a boil in April, when European regulators formally accused Google of abusing its dominance as a search engine to promote its own comparison shopping services. The case, which has been underway for more than five years, has led to a sharp increase in Google’s lobbying activity in Europe. The company tripled its spending from 2010 to 2013, and then tripled it again in 2014, spending at least $4.2 million and as much as $4.8 million in 2014, according to Google’s latest disclosure report. That is still less than Google spends in a single quarter on lobbying in Washington, where it is also becoming a heavyweight. The company made headlines recently for spending more than $5 million there in the first three months of 2015.

Still, since European disclosure requirements are porous -- and voluntary to begin with -- it is not always clear what any company actually spends. Even if companies decide to register in the European Union’s voluntary disclosure system, some areas are exempted, including some spending related to continuing investigations. That means Google would not be required to disclose all of its activity in the antitrust case, in which the European Commission also began an investigation into how the tech giant bundles its apps with its Android smartphone software.