[eMarketer] Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google spend $35 million on antitrust lobbying

The combined lobbying spend of Big Tech companies, Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google has reached $35.5 million so far in 2022. The battle to counter antitrust regulation intensifies as regulatory pressure aims to reduce Big Tech’s market dominance.

Tech monoliths and their trade groups outspent big pharma at a time when US Congress’ push to regulate Big Tech could be fizzling out, per Axios. In context pharmaceutical companies spent around $16 billion in the same period, per Bloomberg.

Facebook’s parent company and metaverse hopeful spent a record amount on lobbying in 2021 as it faced accusations from a whistleblower as well as a year-end rebranding. Meta was one of the leading lobbying spenders in Washington, surpassing the likes of Lockheed and Boeing, per Politico.

According to eMarketer, expect Big Tech to increase its spending on lobbying, especially toward the end of the year when various regulatory agencies look to push antitrust legislation.

Not only will technology companies increase their lobbying expenditures, they are likely to diversify how their money is spent to evenly spread out pressure on regulators.

The $35 million that Big Tech is collectively spending on lobbying is a drop in the bucket in comparison to regulatory fines, which tend to be in the billions of dollars.

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