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Ecommerce giant Amazon’s lobbyists are to be banned from the European parliament as part of an escalating dispute over transparency and working conditions.
The European parliament confirmed on Tuesday that the access badges that give Amazon lobbyists permission to be on its premises will be withdrawn after a group of MEPs called for the move, saying the company had repeatedly refused to engage with it about its approach to workers’ rights and labour conditions.
It is only the second time that a company’s lobbyists have been banned from entering the European parliament, after agrochemical company Monsanto’s representatives were barred in 2017.
Amazon said: “We are very disappointed with this decision, as we want to engage constructively with policymakers. As a company that has been active in the EU for more than 25 years and now has more than 150,000 permanent employees here, we take our engagement with policymakers in Brussels and across Europe extremely seriously.”
European and US lawmakers are increasingly turning their attention to Big Tech and how to regulate fast-developing technologies such as generative artificial intelligence. Companies often use parliamentary lobbyists as a central channel through which to shape regulations.
Amazon has for years drawn scrutiny and pushback from advocacy groups about the ways it treats its workers, from issues including pay and conditions at warehouses to the group’s approach to unionisation.
The Seattle-based company has also recently sparred with regulators in the EU, UK and US over a broad range of issues, including whether its operations and the treatment of sellers on its marketplace pose anti-competitive risks.
The European parliament’s transparency register showed that Amazon had 14 people accredited for access to its premises in February. It also lobbies lawmakers via a lengthy list of intermediaries, including FleishmanHillard and FTI. The company spent about €3mn on lobbying in 2022, according to the register.
According to the Corporate Europe Observatory, a non-profit research and campaign group, Amazon has spent about €18.8mn to lobby European institutions since 2013.
MEPs on the employment and social affairs committee had written to European parliament president Roberta Metsola to ask for a withdrawal of Amazon’s lobbying badges, saying it had declined to participate in a January hearing about working conditions in its warehouses. That marked the third time since 2021 that the company had declined to engage with it, the committee said.
“Amazon declined to participate, citing an excuse of short notice,” said the letter, seen by the Financial Times. “It is unreasonable for members to be lobbied by Amazon while at the same time being deprived of the right to represent the interests of European citizens and inquire about claims of breaches of fundamental rights enshrined in EU Treaties and EU labour laws.”
A group of more than 30 civil society groups then wrote an open letter to Metsola in support of the call by MEPs.
On Tuesday, Oliver Roethig, regional secretary of European trade union group UNI Europa, said the ban demonstrated that “Amazon’s anti-democratic behaviour won’t be tolerated”.
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