Corporate lobbying in Brussels has hit a record. A new report from the transparency group Corporate Europe Observatory and its German partner LobbyControl finds that the EU's biggest corporate lobbyists now spend at least €381.75 million a year trying to shape European policy — close to 50% more than in 2020.
The figure covers 173 companies and trade associations that each declare an annual EU lobbying budget of €1 million or more. The report, titled "The EU corporate lobby league 2026" and published on 11 June, draws on the EU's own Transparency Register through the LobbyFacts database. Its authors stress the real total is almost certainly higher: the register is voluntary, there are no effective sanctions, and many firms under-report what they spend.
Technology giants dominate. The largest tech companies — among them Amazon, Apple and Meta — together spend at least €73 million a year, much of it aimed at weakening digital rules. Meta is the single biggest spender, declaring more than €10 million. The finance sector follows at €66.7 million, energy and fossil fuel companies at a minimum of €52 million, and the chemicals industry at €46.5 million. Overall spending by these players rose €27.55 million (7.8%) on a year earlier and €125.28 million — nearly 49% — since 2020. The number of organisations declaring budgets above €1 million has grown by almost 30% over the same period.
The report lands at a charged moment. The second von der Leyen Commission, working with a right-leaning majority in the European Parliament, is pushing an extensive deregulation agenda under the banners of "competitiveness" and "simplification," with omnibus packages touching chemicals, agriculture, digital policy, industrial emissions and permitting. The campaigners argue that record spending is buying record access. "EU corporate lobbying has reached staggering levels, and today's figures are just the tip of the iceberg," said Vicky Cann, a researcher and campaigner at Corporate Europe Observatory. "It's not only about seeking influence; it's about the most powerful industries in Europe and beyond capturing EU policy-making, while the public is largely in the dark." Felix Duffy of LobbyControl added that the scale of Big Tech's spending is "a warning sign for democracy."
The report calls for the EU Transparency Register to be made legally binding on registrants, to fix what it describes as widespread inaccurate reporting. It also urges the Commission to stop granting privileged access to industry and to rigorously enforce existing digital laws — the Digital Markets Act, the Digital Services Act, the AI Act and the GDPR — rather than soften them.
The timing is pointed. The findings landed days before EU leaders gather for a European Council summit on 18–19 June, with competitiveness high on the agenda. That is the tension in one number: Brussels is being pushed to cut red tape to revive a sluggish economy, and the industries with the most to gain from lighter rules are also the ones spending the most to write them. Whether the EU can pursue a competitiveness agenda without letting the biggest spenders set the terms is now a live test of how the bloc is governed — and the transparency tools meant to keep that process honest remain, by the report's account, largely toothless.
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