Apple spent $6.5 million last year, pretty much in line with its lobbying outlay from 2020, despite an increasingly hostile climate in Washington D.C.
Anna Edgerton and Bill Allison for Bloomberg News:
Google’s lobbying expenditures increased 28% in 2021 to $9.6 million, according to disclosure reports that were due Thursday. In addition to the specific antitrust bills, some of which could threaten Google’s business model, the company’s Washington team lobbied on a range of issues including cloud computing, the semiconductor supply chain, cybersecurity, global tax issues, pandemic contact tracing and the remote learning technologies that have become a central part of education.
The increase reflects the tougher scrutiny from Washington on the technology companies that have a bigger presence than ever in U.S. economic activity, civil discourse and everyday life. Along with bipartisan concerns about content moderation and user privacy, a new generation of antitrust activists has described these hugely profitable digital companies as the new robber barons that use anticompetitive conduct to maintain and grow their market dominance.
Meanwhile, lobbying expenditures from two Chinese tech companies exploded last year, according to Thursday’s disclosures. Huawei Technologies Co., the network and telecommunications firm, increased its lobbying budget 664% last year, to $3.6 million, as it tried to beat back U.S. restrictions on its networking equipment and procurement options… ByteDance Ltd., spent $4.7 million on lobbying last year, up 83.7%, as American lawmakers continued to raise questions about its wildly popular TikTok app…
In 2021, Meta spent $20.1 million, a 2% increase over the previous year. Amazon spent $19.3 million on lobbying in 2021, up 8.2% from a year before. Apple spent $6.5 million last year… Microsoft Corp’s lobbying expenditures also ticked up last year, to $10.2 million, an 8.4% increase from 2020.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple likely spent more on toilet paper for retail stores bathrooms – and got more from it.
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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Those bribes have definitely been good for Meta (Facebook). No Fed agency can touch that company no matter what crooked stuff it does. Maybe Apple doesn’t need to spend much on lobbying as it’s always been that way. Of all the FAANG stocks, Apple always gives the least so Apple is probably just throwing money away. The biggest bribes are usually the ones that have the most influence.
You can be sure Facebo…I mean Meta is behind a few of the Politicians lashing out at Apple. That’s just how it works in DC….
Apple used to not lobby at all and got treated better. The more you spend on these DC parasites, they more they demand. Losing game