Facing Antitrust Probes, Google Accelerates Lobbying Efforts
Google spent $4.18 million in lobbying in Q3, up 6.6 percent from the previous quarter, according to recent filings with the Senate. The company has spent $13.1 million on lobbying in the first nine months of 2012 as it faces an antitrust investigation for allegedly favoring its products and platforms in search rankings. It also focused lobbying efforts on legislation related to privacy, online ads, intellectual property, cybersecurity, mobile geolocation, Internet freedom, immigration and autonomous vehicle technologies.
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Microsoft and Apple’s Q3 lobbying spending was slightly less than in the previous quarter. Microsoft spent $1.86 million last quarter, compared with $2 million in Q2. Apple spent $460,000 on lobbying in Q3, a 2 percent decrease from Q2.
Facebook spent $980,000 on lobbying in Q3, more than double the $360,000 it spent Q3 2011. So far the company has spent nearly $2.6 million in 2012 to lobby on hot-button technology issues relating to cybersecurity, children’s online privacy, piracy of intellectual property and facial recognition technologies, among others.
Verizon spent $3.1 million in Q3, as the FCC weighed its purchase of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo and Cox. The telco’s Q3 spending marked a 21 percent drop from the previous quarter. Verizon has spent $11.5 million thus far in 2012, focusing on legislation including that related to cybersecurity, spectrum policy, retrans, mobile payments, privacy, Internet freedom, anti-piracy, patent reform and Sen. Jim DeMint’s, R-S.C., Next Generation Television Marketplace Act (S-2008). AT&T lobbying dollars remained flat from Q2 at $3.5 million. T-Mobile, which dropped its opposition to the SpectrumCo deal after Verizon agreed to swap some of its spectrum, spent $1.6 million in Q3.
Comcast spent $3.81 million last quarter, down slightly from $3.99 million the previous quarter. The company focused its lobbying efforts on a broad array of issues like privacy, cybersecurity, the Verizon/SpectrumCo deal, intellectual property legislation, USF allocation, spectrum and supply chain issues. Time Warner spent $1.79 million in Q3, down 5 percent from the previous quarter and down 12 percent from Q3 2011.
Motorola Mobility spent $420,000 in the third quarter following its $12.5 billion acquisition by Google in May. Motorola Solutions spent $590,000 during the same quarter. Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE spent $220,000 and $10,000 in Q3, respectively, to defend against allegations that their products contain software vulnerabilities that could permit the Chinese government to spy on Americans.
Amazon.com lobbying was $550,000 last quarter, 20 percent less than the previous quarter. Netflix spent $160,000 in Q3 on advocacy of video privacy reform. GoDaddy.com spent $126,000.