No longer obsessed with using products to speak, Apple Cook increases investment in US antitrust lobbying: spending $46 billion in the first half of this year – yqqlm

Beijing time on July 22 morning news, according to reports, 10 years ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook (Tim Cook) did not fully agree with the formation of a lobbying team in Washington. Like his predecessor and mentor, Steve Jobs, Cook believes that Apple’s excellent products should be used as “lobbies.”

But now, that laissez-faire attitude is a thing of the past.

In recent years, Cook has become the most active tech CEO in U.S. politics, as Apple has faced increasing antitrust resistance in the U.S. Congress. The tech giant has ramped up its lobbying efforts, hiring well-connected former congressional aides and courting powerful members of Congress, often even asking Cook to lobby members of Congress himself.

The U.S. Congress is due to vote on an antitrust measure before it adjourns in August that, if passed, would bar tech giants from using their platforms to crush rivals. One of the provisions is designed to break Apple’s monopoly on its App Store and could cost Apple billions of dollars.

Apple’s spending on U.S. federal lobbying is at an all-time high. The company reported a record $46 billion in that spending in the first half, up $15 billion from a year ago. While Apple disclosed Wednesday that the company’s lobbying spending fell to $19 billion in the second quarter, the $27 billion in the first quarter was up about 85 percent from a year earlier.