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Meta was the organization ahead of Apple in the comparison that put Apple’s EU lobbying spending at about €7 million. But “€7 million in 2024” should not be read as an audited January–December total: the figure comes from companies’ annual declarations to the EU Transparency Register, which reports spending bands and may cover a different annual period.
In the earlier ranking, Meta was reported at roughly €8 million and Apple at €7 million. That made Apple second among the companies in that comparison, although some tables treated the position as a tie with other large technology companies.
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Who spent more than Apple?
Meta did. Euronews’ comparison of digital-industry lobbying, based on Transparency Register data analyzed by Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl, listed Meta at approximately €8 million and Apple at approximately €7 million for the relevant declaration period.
The amounts are estimates of declared annual lobbying expenditure, not an EU-audited cash ledger. The register uses ranges, and watchdog analyses often use the bottom of each range. A published figure can therefore mean the lower end of a band such as €7 million to just under €8 million.
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Source: Euronews ranking; LobbyControl’s earlier analysis.
The leaderboard depends on the reporting period
| Comparison | Meta | Amazon | Apple | Microsoft | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earlier comparison reported by Euronews | About €8 million | Not stated in that table | About €7 million | About €5 million | Apple was reported second behind Meta |
| Later analysis reported in 2025–2026 coverage | About €10 million | About €9 million | About €8 million | About €7 million | Meta remained first; Apple was below Amazon |
The later figures are an update, not a revision of the earlier €7 million comparison. Different register cutoffs, declaration periods, company groupings and treatment of spending bands can change the order.
Sources: Euractiv’s later ranking; LobbyControl’s later analysis.
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What “EU lobbying spend” includes
A company’s declaration generally covers resources used to influence EU policymaking, such as:
- in-house public-affairs and government-relations staff;
- outside consultants, public-relations firms and law firms;
- meetings and other engagement with EU institutions;
- policy campaigns, advocacy and stakeholder outreach; and
- participation in industry associations and lobbying networks.
The EU Transparency Register is self-reported. It is designed to disclose lobbying activity, not to provide a complete audited account of every influence-related euro. Spending through associations, consultants, coalitions or other entities may not appear in the company’s direct entry, and the register does not measure lobbying outside its scope.
Why Apple has major EU policy stakes
Apple’s Brussels agenda spans rules that can affect how its products and services operate in Europe:
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- Digital Markets Act: gatekeeper obligations, interoperability and alternative distribution requirements;
- App Store and payments: app distribution, commissions and payment choices;
- Competition enforcement: investigations into platform practices and market power;
- Digital Services Act: online-platform duties and consumer protections;
- AI and data rules: the AI Act, data access, privacy and use of information for AI systems; and
- browser and default-app choice: requirements that can change how users select services.
Apple’s declared amount covers this broad portfolio. It does not establish that €7 million was spent solely on the App Store, the DMA or any single investigation. Apple’s DSA transparency report for the App Store describes compliance information for July–December 2024; it is not an independent verification of lobbying expenditure.
Meta’s position at the top
Meta’s first-place position reflects both the breadth of its EU exposure and the scale of its declared public-affairs operation. Its interests include platform regulation, advertising, online safety, data protection, competition and AI rules. Watchdog organizations say Big Tech companies have sought flexible or weaker obligations; companies generally characterize their engagement as lawful participation in policymaking and advocacy for innovation, competitiveness and workable compliance.
A high budget is not, by itself, evidence of unlawful conduct, regulatory capture or a particular legislative outcome. Those conclusions require separate evidence.
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The wider lobbying surge
| Analysis period | Digital-sector lobbying reported | Change from prior reference |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | About €97 million | Baseline |
| 2023 | About €113 million | Higher than 2021 |
| Later 2025 analysis | About €151 million | About 33.6% above 2023 and 55.6% above 2021 |
These totals depend on which companies and trade associations are classified as “digital,” whether subsidiaries are combined, the register cutoff and whether the lowest value in each spending range is used. LobbyControl’s later analysis also counted about 890 digital-sector lobbying full-time-equivalent positions, a staffing measure that should not be confused with spending.
Sources: LobbyControl’s sector analysis and its €151 million update.
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Meeting records provide a different measure from spending. One 2025 analysis counted about 378 meetings involving major technology companies and senior Commission officials or Members of the European Parliament during the first half of 2025—roughly three per day across the group. In the cited summary, Apple had 76 recorded meetings, compared with Meta’s 63, Amazon’s 49 and Google’s 47.
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EU disclosure rules cover particular senior officials, not every conversation. Contacts with lower-level officials, national governments, consultants, trade associations and lawmakers may not appear. Meeting counts and budgets therefore show resources and access, but do not prove that lobbying caused a law, amendment or enforcement decision.
Source: reported meeting and ranking summary.
How to read the €7 million claim
- It is an approximate declared annual amount, not necessarily cash spent from 1 January through 31 December 2024.
- It may represent the lower end of a spending range.
- “Second” refers to the specified comparison set and period; it does not mean second among every organization registered to lobby the EU.
- Trade associations, subsidiaries and outside coalitions can affect comparisons.
- Companies can update register entries, so later snapshots may produce different rankings.
Where the ranking stands in the latest available analysis
The most recent comparison cited here put Meta at about €10 million, Amazon at €9 million, Apple at €8 million and Microsoft at €7 million. That makes Meta the continuing leader in the later dataset, while Apple was no longer second behind Meta once Amazon’s higher declaration was included.
The answer to the original question is therefore straightforward but date-sensitive: Meta spent more than Apple in the ranking associated with Apple’s approximately €7 million declaration. Apple was one of the largest corporate lobbyists in Brussels, but the number should be presented as a dated, self-reported estimate rather than an exact 2024 bill.
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