Apple Now Spends Over $8 Million Lobbying the EU Annually

Apple spent much wealth lobbying EU officials successful 2025 than successful immoderate erstwhile year, according to a caller dataset from Corporate Europe Observatory, which reports that Apple present allocates astir €7 cardinal ($8.2 million) annually to power European regulation.


Apple is identified by the study arsenic 1 of the 10 largest tech-sector lobby spenders successful Europe. Those 10 companies unneurotic relationship for €49 cardinal of digital-industry lobbying retired of a full €151 cardinal recorded successful the EU Transparency Register for 2025. Apple antecedently disclosed spending betwixt €3.5 cardinal and €3.75 cardinal per twelvemonth successful 2021, revealing a near-doubling of declared expenditure wrong 4 years.

The study attributes the summation to ongoing EU regulatory enactment targeting ample American exertion firms, including the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, AI Act, and GDPR enforcement. The probe notes that Apple participated successful 29 ceremonial meetings with high-level European Commission officials betwixt January and June 2025. Amazon recorded 43 meetings successful the aforesaid window, Microsoft 36, Google 35, and Meta 27.

Artificial quality argumentation was the astir predominant taxable of Commission-level discussions successful the period. According to the gathering minutes, AI was referenced successful 58 of the 146 logged meetings with the 5 largest U.S. tech companies. Other files that Apple and peers lobbied connected see information centers and unreality infrastructure (23 meetings), the Digital Services Act (17), the Digital Markets Act (16), and the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act (16).

Apple besides engaged with members of the European Parliament. The dataset records 232 meetings betwixt MEPs and the 5 largest U.S. tech firms successful the archetypal six months of 2025. Apple was contiguous astatine 47 of those interactions. Meta held 63, Amazon 49, Google 47, and Microsoft 34.

Corporate Europe Observatory further attributes €2.3 cardinal of Apple expenditure to consultancy contracts, covering lobbying agencies, PR firms, and third-party probe entities. In the aforesaid category, Amazon spent €2.84 cardinal and Meta €1.5 million.

Multiple Brussels-based deliberation tanks, including Bruegel, Centre for European Reform, Centre for European Policy Studies, and Centre connected Regulation successful Europe, present database ongoing fiscal enactment from each 5 U.S. Big Tech firms.

Apple's higher spending comes astatine a clip erstwhile EU integer rules are tightening. Its determination into the apical tier of lobby spenders truthful tracks the information that Apple present has nonstop fiscal and merchandise vulnerability to each large EU tech contented presently connected the table.
This article, "Apple Now Spends Over $8 Million Lobbying the EU Annually" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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