Big Tech's EU Lobbying: Direct and Structural Power

The power of large US and Chinese technology companies has become a burning social issue, especially in the European Union (EU), which sees itself as a global pioneer in the regulation of the global technology sector. The size and significance of the EU as a market area, as well as the global power of its rules, have understandably increased the interest of large technology companies in trying to impact EU decision-making. These various attempts at exerting influence have not only been accompanied with a quantitative increase in visibility, but also a significant qualitative change in interest group politics, in particular given the nature of large technology companies as masters of key digital infrastructures and related complex technologies. These forms of lobbying are linked to the new kind of criticism faced by American digital giants in Europe and the digital sovereignty agenda that it has spurred in Brussels, and understanding them, requires engaging with the developing framework of platform capitalism that helps explain emerging forms of corporate power in the 2020s and the challenges that it now poses to the EU and beyond. This talk will discuss the findings of a round of interviews with actors ---  politicians, assistants, civil servants and lobbyists --- active in EU technology policy circles in Brussels as well as major member states.  The talk will discuss the strategies of these actors, in particular as they relate to the EU's Digital Markets and Digital Services Acts, and how these developments advance our prior assumptions  about direct and structural business power.

Laura Nordström is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. Her current research focuses on the EU and global political economy, with a a particular focus on Big Tech-EU lobbying relationships as part of the 'Seeing Like a Tech Firm: Advocacy in the Era of Platform Capitalism (SEE-TECH) project. Laura was the editor of Poliittinen talous in 2023-2024, and before entering academia, she worked in the European Parliament, the Finnish Parliament, and the Finnish Foreign Ministry.

The event is part of the Seminar Series “Platform Politics and Policy”.

Researchers from outside the WZB who would like to attend may email the organizer, robert.gorwa [at] wzb.eu, to be put onto the seminar series mailing list.