Jason Redmond/Redmond
Amazon and Google broke personal records for lobbying payouts in the first three months of 2021: The two American conglomerates collectively spent $7.5 million on federal lobbying between January 1 and March 31.
Amazon was the heavier spender of the two, according to a Bloomberg report, with $4.8 million spent in the first quarter, while Google spent $2.7 million in the same time.
Both companies are facing increased scrutiny from legislators on a variety of issues.
In Amazon's case, it's getting pushback on everything from labor practices to anticompetitive behavior. With Google, legislators have raised a variety of criticisms — from anticompetitive behavior to its business interests in China.
During a congressional hearing in the summer of 2020, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, defended their companies. The hearing was part of an ongoing investigation by the House Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee focused on anticompetitive behavior.
Google's lobbying spending in the first quarter of 2021 was nearly 50% higher than the same time period in 2020, while Amazon's increase was just 11% higher.
Google declined to comment to Insider, while Amazon offered the following statement regarding its lobbying efforts: "Our Washington, D.C., team is focused on ensuring we are advocating on issues that are important to policy makers, our employees and our customers."
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