Google used congress members it funded to fight €6bn EU antitrust case, investigation finds

A co-ordinated lobbying drive was organised by Google in Brussels in November 2014

Google has increased its annual lobbying spending from €600,000 in 2011 to almost €4m last year (Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images)

Google reportedly recruited US congress members to fight a €6bn antitrust case in the EU - after funding the congress members' election campaigns.

An investigation by the Guardian alleges that a co-ordinated lobbying drive was organised by Google in Brussels in November 2014. At that time, the EU Parliament prepared to vote through a resolution calling on policymakers to consider breaking Google into multiple separate companies to protect competition.

The politicians recruited for the campaign reportedly received campaign donations from Google amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Guardian said.

The documents received by MEPs from congress members, calling the antitrust legislation "troubling", were in some cases identical.

The members came from both the democrat and republican party and the included senators and members of the House of Represantatives.

House of Reps

In April, Margrethe Vestager formally accused Google of abusing its market dominance by favouring its proprietary shopping price comparison service. Google faces fines of more than €6bn (£4.3bn) if found guilty.

The company dismissed Vestager outright, saying the case was "wrong as a matter of fact, law and economics."

Google has increased its annual lobbying spending from €600,000 in 2011 to almost €4m last year, according to transparency data uncovered by the Guardian.

Google did not respond to requests for comment from the Independent. Spokespeople for Margrethe Vestager did not immediately return calls.

One senior EU official speaking on condition of anonymity said Google’s lobbying in Brussels stood out because of the intricate, often subtle yet powerful mechanisms it employs.