Twitter could soon find itself ignored by top European lawmakers. Twitter, as well as media companies BSkyB, TalkTalk, LG Electronics and Angry Birds maker Rovio missed an annual deadline to register their lobbying operations to the European Union Commission.
The news is significant because the Commission, under president Jean-Claude Juncker, has decided not to meet any lobbyists not on the register.
In past years this was not treated as strictly so the annual update was more important than usual this year.
Despite the clearly communicated position, more than 1,500 companies failed to update their information. If they do not re-register in the next two weeks they will be permanently deleted from the EU’s register of approved lobbyists.
It’s possible that they decided to let their lobbying plans lapse, but given a new EU copyright directive is in the pipeline it’s surprising they have dropped the ball.
Who didn’t miss the deadline? Google for one, which has doubled its official lobbying over the last few months and looks poised to aggressively ramp its efforts in the face of an anti-trust complaint. Google will officially spend as much as $5 million this year, while the actually total is likely a few times this.
Topping the biggest spenders on the register is Microsoft, another monopolist, with an estimated spend of $6 million. Chinese state computer company Huawei is another big spender in the tech-telco sector with $4 million in officially registered spending.
Stay Connected
