Amazon Lobbied More Government Entities Than Any Other Public US Company Last Year (fortune.com)

Amazon lobbied more government entities last year than any other public U.S. company, covering issues like healthcare, transportation, defense, and labor regulation. "Across 2018, Amazon contacted 40 different federal entities on 21 different general issue areas," reports Fortune, citing a report from Axios. "The only tech giant to lobby on more issues than Amazon was Google's Alphabet." From the report: In terms of money spent, Amazon's $14.4 million is topped only by Alphabet's $21 million, says Bloomberg. While the tech industry overall spent less than half of the $280 million from pharmaceutical and healthcare products companies in Washington, Amazon has increased spending 460% since 2012, growing quickly within its trade. According to Axios, Amazon lobbied on self-driving car and drone issues, hinting at new methods of delivery. It supported a law allowing pharmacists to tell patients when using their insurance is actually more expensive, aiding Amazon's new investment in PillPack. It also covered the labeling of bioengineered food and a pilot program allowing online shoppers to use the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program -- signs of Amazon's emerging grocery business.

Comments

And the story is Amazon... bringing up the rear?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this front page news... an also-ran in terms of money spent for influence winds up here? The opening statement shows that Alphabet is already spending more... and Big Pharma makes both of them look like junior varsity.

Quote: "The only tech giant to lobby on more issues than Amazon was Google's Alphabet."

So we're now covering the first loser as news?

Jeff, you've been out-whataburgered

[rmdingler]

Lobbying, at its most basic, is peddling monetary influence in exchange for political influence.

All these target markets for influence, and nothing for Bleecker Street. The saddest part of it all is the American President out-thought you there.

Re:Jeff, you've been out-whataburgered

[dcw3]

The saddest part of it all is the American President out-thought you there.

Which one? Oh, and every member of Congress too?

Legalized bribery

[Tablizer]

Shame on you, GOP judges.

Re:Legalized bribery

[Tablizer]

Who is giving them a pass? E. Warren suggested splitting up big web co's.

richest company has the most lobbyists

[Anonymous Coward]

news at 11

Tech learns from its mistakes.

[SvnLyrBrto]

Tech companies engaged in hardly any lobbying back in the '90s during that tech boom. And we got screwed because of it. Established industry players, with long histories of LOTS of lobbying bought laws like the DMCA, for example. How many tech companies were wiped out by that one abuse alone? I had friends at Napster, and at two other Napster-like companies, that were put out of work by the RIAA/Metallica lobby. And the demise of one of the companies I worked for was hastened by being forced to waste engineering time and effort, and waste money to bring a lawyer onto the payroll; to deal with DMCA BS. And some of you will recall that 2001 was a BAD time for your employer to be going under.

And that's just one of a number of laws that those entrenched interests bought that have adversely... sometimes grievously... affected tech. Yeah, it's a dirty game and it would be nice for it to go away entirely. But as long as scum like the RIAA/Metallica play it; tech really has no choice now. Bringing a knife to a gun fight seldom works out.

Re: Tech learns from its mistakes.

[cpt kangarooski]

The iPod relies on a favorable court case won by Diamond, which was making the Rio line of MP3 players (boy, that was a long time ago). There was no permission needed for the device. Itâ(TM)s the iTunes Music Store that Jobs had to negotiate for.

Re:I can't imagine

[stephanruby]

Why are we focusing on Amazon?

Amazon doesn't even figure as one of the top 10 lobbyists in the United States.

https://www.opensecrets.org/lo...

Of course, these stats don't even take into account the Super PACs

Re:Sorry Ken Doll

[PopeRatzo]

You're too fucking boring to matter even a little bit. Keep the boring and stupid inside and just kill yourself. Nobody will ever miss you. You will never matter even a tiny amount.

Mom, is that you?

Seems like an odd metric to use

[Solandri]

Amazon lobbieslots of government branches because they do business in basically every jurisdiction in the U.S. in multiple industries. If you look at raw number of dollars spent lobbying, Amazon doesn't even make the top 10.

Healthcare Lobbying & Socialised Healthcare

[labnet]

What do USA /.'s think of socialised medicine?
Every other developed western country has a public health care system that will fix most issues for free, (chronic issues with a wait), and overlay that with a private system secondary to the public system.

You pay twice as much as everyone else for health care. People are regularly bankrupted. You still have major out of pocket expenses.
So do you think the USA needs tax funded public primary health care?
And if so, whats is preventing the change?

Re:Healthcare Lobbying & Socialised Healthcare

[DNS-and-BIND]

The fantastically large prices paid by Americans subsidize medical advances that benefit the rest of the world. To "fix" this problem would mean bringing healthcare advancement to a halt. Are you sure that's what you want?

People are regularly bankrupted.

Normal people have good health insurance. The only people who get bankrupted are the deplorables. Are you really going to stand up for them? Seriously?

It'll All Be Forgotten

[WankerWeasel]

Lobbying is evil. Oh, they gave me "free" 2-day shipping? What was I saying?"

Re:Sorry Ken Doll

[Highdude702]

This explains your unrational thoughts. I take back all the things I said about you.

Re:I can't imagine

[bill_mcgonigle]

Some people just want to destroy anything successful because they are personally failures and cannot stand to be reminded of that.

Sure, some have academic, if poorly constructed, arguments but the number of people emotionally driven by jealousy is staggering.

There is a plethora of "man on the street" videos on YouTube asking people about taxing the rich that clearly illustrate this principle.

Re:Gotta be lobbying for the left.

[BringsApples]

Yeah man Walmart and Costco, too. Only shop at Dollar General and gas stations.

The other "Tax"

[EETech1]

I thought I saw where they didn't have to pay any federal taxes last year?!

Re:I can't imagine

[dcw3]

I want to destroy that list by getting the fucking money out of bribing our politicians. Here's the 2018 list...

US Chamber of Commerce $94,800,000
National Assn of Realtors $72,808,648
Open Society Policy Center $31,520,000
Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America $27,989,250
American Hospital Assn $23,927,842
Blue Cross/Blue Shield $23,604,221
Business Roundtable $23,160,000
Alphabet Inc $21,740,000
American Medical Assn $20,417,000
AT&T Inc $18,529,000
Boeing Co $15,120,000
Comcast Corp $15,072,000
Amazon.com $14,400,000
Northrop Grumman $14,303,000
National Assn of Broadcasters $14,170,000
Bayer AG $13,430,000
NCTA The Internet & Television Assn $13,240,000
Lockheed Martin $13,205,502
Facebook Inc $12,620,000
Southern Co $12,300,000