Big Tech spent millions on lobbying amid antitrust scrutiny

Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft all listed several House proposals as targets of their lobbying campaign last quarter, trying to convince lawmakers that this legislation would destroy popular products, endanger user safety and benefit foreign competitors. — AFP

The largest US technology companies continued to spend millions on lobbying last quarter, seeking to sway legislation intended to bolster antitrust enforcement and force other changes on the industry.

Apple Inc increased its spending to US$1.64mil (RM6.94mil) in the second quarter, up 12.3% from the previous quarter. Amazon Inc’s total increased by 1.3% to US$4.86mil (RM20.56mil). Lobbying expenditures by Microsoft Corp dipped slightly, down 4.6% to US$2.47mil (RM10.45mil) and Facebook Inc mostly held steady at US$4.77mil (RM20.18mil). Alphabet Inc’s Google spent US$2.09mil (RM8.84mil), down 22.3% from last quarter, but up 23.7% from last year.