Google is using hard and soft lobbying to endear itself to Europeans while the EC continues to slap the company with antitrust complaints.
Google is running a “charm offensive” in Europe, wooing the public as it faces a growing list of antitrust objections from regulators there, The New York Times reported July 19.
The Times estimates Google’s earmarked spending for “soft lobbying,” for the time between 2015 and 2017 to be approximately $450 million. Such heart-and-minds campaigns include free digital training courses for Irish schoolteachers and a high-tech interactive art exhibition at Google’s Cultural Institute in Paris.
In 2014, Google’s spending on political lobbying in Brussels, the seat of the European Commission, reached $4.2 million, according to the report (which added that Google spent significantly more—$17 million—that same year lobbying in Washington).
By year’s end, The Times added, Google will spend another $75 million to help approximately 2 million Europeans to learn “digital skills like e-commerce and online marketing (often based on the company’s own advertising products), an important goal for European policy makers, who are trying to create a digital single market to jump-start economic growth.”
Full Content: E Week
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
Featured News
T-Mobile Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Sprint Merger After Appeal Denied
May 16, 2024 by
CPI
Google Faces Backlash Over Introduction of AI-Generated Summaries in Searches
May 16, 2024 by
CPI
CMA Launches Phase 2 Probe into AlphaTheta’s Acquisition of Serato
May 16, 2024 by
CPI
NFL Executive Escapes Testifying in High-Stakes Trial Over Televised Games
May 16, 2024 by
CPI
EU Consumers Lodge Complaint Against Chinese Retailer Temu Over Content Rules Breach
May 16, 2024 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – Ecosystems
May 9, 2024 by
CPI
Mapping Antitrust onto Digital Ecosystems
May 9, 2024 by
CPI
Ecosystems and Competition Law: A Law and Political Economy Approach
May 9, 2024 by
CPI
Ecosystem Theories of Harm: What is Beyond the Buzzword?
May 9, 2024 by
CPI
Open Ecosystems: Benefits, Challenges, and Implications for Antitrust
May 9, 2024 by
CPI