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EU: Tech firms add lobby strength as EC gets tough

By  |  September 7, 2016

US tech giants Google and Facebook are among multinationals spending more in Brussels as the European Commission eyes new business regulation after last week handing Apple a 13-billion-euro tax demand.

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    A new annual filing by Google to the EU’s Transparency Register showed it spent roughly 15-20 percent more on lobbying European Union officials and lawmakers last year than in 2014, itself some three times as much as in the year before that.

    A review by Reuters of EU lobbying budgets of a handful of leading US firms which have been in the spotlight of European regulatory debates showed Google among the biggest spenders of all corporations, reporting a budget of 4.25-4.50 million euros. That compared to 3.5-4.0 million euros the year before and 1.25-1.5 million euros in 2013.

    Full Content: Reuters

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