Apple significantly increased lobbying spending in 2022

It is not a surprise : Apple considerably increased its spending on lobbying in 2022. The trend was already known at the end of the first half of last year since the Cupertino firm had devoted $4.6 million to lobbying over the first 6 months of 2022 (+ $1.5 million over H1 2021). The overall toll for the year came to $9.6 million for Apple, meaning lobbying fees remained roughly the same from semester to semester. The increase in spending remains very significant: Apple had spent $6.5 million on lobbying for the whole of 2021.

We bet that the multiple antitrust proceedings launched against the App Store mobilized a large part of these amounts, but Apple would also have pushed its advantage on the issue of climate change (remains to be seen in what direction), the management of privacy or the tax rate (there, we know which way it’s going…).

Apple has therefore greatly increased its spending on lobbying… but still remains relatively behind on this subject compared to the other GAFAMs, i.e. Amazon (19.7 million dollars in lobbying, +2%), Meta (19.2 million dollars), Microsoft ($9.8 million) or Google ($10.9 million). Lagging behind, but no longer really behind. Apple enters the ranks of “influence”. The GAFAMs as a whole spent nearly $70 million on lobbying in 2022, a drop in the bucket for billionaire companies, but a drop in the bucket that can pay off big.