Report: spamming the regulator

How Big Tech undermines EU competition policy + holding the fossil fuel industry accountable

Dear friends,

We have warned in the past that Big Tech has become the EU's biggest lobby spender, but a little-known band of economic consultancies are still managing to fly under the radar on behalf of their tech clients. 

In our latest report with German NGO LobbyControl, you can read how all about how these consultancies (absent from the EU transparency register) are effectively 'spamming the regulator' with supposedly neutral reports to influence the EU's competition policy and smooth the path for Big Tech monopolies and mergers. What's worse, the Commission's DG Competition in charge of competition policy enjoys a regular revolving door with these consultancies.

Big Tech lobbying worries us so much that, together with our friends at LobbyControl, and a group of cross-party MEPs, we’ve launched LobbyLeaks.eu. It is a new hotline for anonymous tip-offs about lobbying, specifically focused on issues around Big Tech. You can watch our researcher Bram Vranken explaining who has access to the leaks in this video. You can also listen to him and Dutch MEP Paul Tang discuss how they came up with the idea in our EU Watchdog radio podcast!

Last but certainly not least, we want to share with you a petition to kick the fossil fuel industry out of politics - they’ve  caused the energy and cost of living crisis, they’ve hugely profited from it, and they’ve lobbied against fixing it in order  to protect their profits. Polluters Out, People  In! Add your name to almost 100K people that have already signed it. It’ll be handed in to Parliament on the 27th of February before our event in the European Parliament in Brussels on the same topic, hosted by the Left, the Greens, and the Socialist & Democrats. Let us know if you want to attend! 

But why would we want to separate the fox from the henhouse, err, sorry, the fossil fuel industry from decision-makers? Fossil fuel companies have announced record breaking profits whilst gas prices skyrocketed and we are left in the cold paying the price. At the same time, fossil fuel lobbyists continue to enjoy privileged access to European decision-makers. How much more do we have to tolerate before we stop trusting fossil fuel corporations with our future? We are co-signatories of another petition that, as a part of the coalition Fossil Free Politics, we submitted to the European Parliament alongside 91 organisations from 15 countries. We will have a public hearing in the PETI Committee to hold fossil fuel companies to account for their role in fuelling the cost of living crisis also on the 28 February, contact us if you want to join this campaign as well!

In solidarity,

The CEO Comms Team

- Kat, Joana, and Lucy