Newly leaked emails reveal how Google and Amazon used their access to the Office of the US Trade Representative as they sought to undermine overseas regulations — including efforts to protect traditional media.
In May 2023, Google tried to engage the USTR in its fight to defeat or at least water down Canada’s Online News Act, which came into effect last December. The law requires Google and Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to pay publishers for the right to display their content online. In response, Meta left Canada.
That month, Google’s head of trade policy, Nicholas Bramble, emailed three USTR employees — senior director for digital services and commerce Andrea Boron, deputy assistant trade representative Robb Tanner and director for Canada Randall Oliver — to request a meeting on “future developments in Canada”.
USTR accepted the request for a meeting, which took place just four business days later, the emails show. On June 5, USTR’s Boroni thanked Google staff for their time and asked them to share “Google’s public comments” detailing objections and concerns about the Online News Act.
Bramble responded with links to a “list of key concerns and proposed amendments” that Google provided to Canadian lawmakers.
The private email exchange offers a glimpse into what the group describes as a “shadow war” by Big Tech firms to “hijack US trade policy” for their own benefit – in part by maintaining a “revolving door” relationship with the lead federal agency, Demand. Progress, a nonprofit advocacy group, said in a report on the emails.
The Canada documents included a transcript of public testimony in which Google’s vice president of news, Richard Gringas, warned that the company would “reconsider” providing news content in Canada if the law went into effect. Google also provided an opinion piece from the Financial Times, which argued in favor of “other, less confrontational solutions”.
The messages were part of a batch of emails between Google and Amazon executives and USTR officials exchanged between May 2023 and April 2024. They were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Demand Progress and provided exclusively to The Post .
“We cannot allow giant corporations to hijack government, bypass the Senate-confirmed United States Trade Representative, and replace policy priorities that serve us all with new ones that serve no one but them and their shareholders. them,” the group added.
In an email from September of last year, Google’s Bramble followed up with the USTR to ask if the company could provide a “quick update” on the Canadian legislation. A day later, USTR’s Boroni responded to set up a call and said she was “very keen to get an update from you.”
After fighting tooth and nail to weaken or kill the bill and even threatening to pull news content entirely, Google finally made a last-minute deal with Canada last November and agreed to pay $74 million to the media.
Google issued a concession securing the right to negotiate with a consortium of local news media rather than each one individually. Google’s chief legal officer, Kent Walker, took a victory lap, declaring that he was “pleased that the Government of Canada has committed to addressing our core issues.”
Asked about the emails, Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement: “We regularly engage with government officials on many issues, particularly those that could harm consumers and US interests.”
Castañeda added: “Both publicly and privately, we have shared our concerns about foreign government policies that harm American companies, and we will continue to do so.”
A USTR spokesman said the work of agency chief Katherine Tai and her team “over the past 3.5 years demonstrates an unwavering commitment to workers and protecting their rights.”
“The Biden-Harris administration’s trade agenda is specifically designed to give workers a seat at the table after they have been sidelined for decades,” the spokesman added.
Watchdogs warn that Big Tech is using its influence over the USTR and other federal agencies to help shape a pattern of lax regulatory policies, both in the U.S. and abroad, that protects its interests at the expense of smaller competitors .
If successful, the effort could undercut any future efforts by Congress or individual states to enact antitrust laws, critics say.
“American businesses are not monolithic, and USTR often must choose between advancing the interests of American monopolists and advancing the interests of smaller companies and consumers,” said Dan Geldon, former chief of staff to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Elsewhere, in August 2023, USTR’s Danielle Fumagalli emailed Amazon and Google staff for their thoughts on a proposal in Japan aimed at helping domestic cloud computing firms compete for government contracts and explained “how problematic be this change for you”.
Fumagalli’s email to Amazon appeared to be addressed to Mary Thornton, who at the time was head of trade and export control policy for the e-commerce giant’s cloud unit. Thornton worked as a director at USTR before joining Amazon.
The cozy ties between Amazon and the federal agency were also on display during a May 2023 exchange.
USTR’s Boron emailed Amazon’s head of US trade policy, Kate Kalutkiewicz, directly to set up a call ahead of a meeting between the agency and Brazilian telecoms regulator ANATEL.
Kalutkiewicz previously served as USTR’s director for Brazil before joining Amazon.
At the time, ANATEL was considering regulations that would affect Amazon and other Big Tech platforms.
“It would be helpful if you have something to share,” Boron wrote.
When reached for comment, an Amazon spokesperson said that “like many other American companies with significant domestic investment and job creation, we advocate for issues that are important to our customers and our sellers, and that includes keeping open lines of communication with officials at all levels of government.”
Emily Peterson-Cassin, director of corporate power at Demand Progress, said the messages show that Google and other Big Tech firms enjoy a level of access to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office that other policy advocates simply don’t. take
“It’s their job to work for the public good,” Peterson-Cassin said. “It’s not their job to work for Big Tech.”
While their names do not appear in the email threads, Google currently employs several high-level policy staff who previously worked at the US Trade Representative.
For example, Karan Bhatia served as deputy US Trade Representative from 2005 to 2007 before taking over as Google’s head of public policy and government relations in 2018.
Last November, Insider reported that Bhatia’s name appeared frequently in a separate set of emails between Google and the USTR — including messages related to the Online News Act.
The situation has drawn the attention of Congress.
In an April 2023 letter to Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a group of Democratic lawmakers criticized an effort by “tech industry groups” to kill the Online News Act by labeling it “illegal trade discrimination.” during negotiations for an international trade agreement. called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.
Tai has worked to counter the dynamic and has “resisted the forces that are trying to tilt trade policy in favor of big business” since taking office as US trade representative in 2021, according to Peterson-Cassin.
“That’s exactly the kind of leadership we need moving forward,” Peterson-Cassin added.
Google and Amazon are trying to avoid regulatory blows that could upend their business models on multiple fronts. Both firms face unprecedented antitrust scrutiny in the US and abroad over their alleged efforts to strangle rivals, as well as legislative action in various countries aimed at curbing their dominance.
In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly over Internet search.
A separate Justice Department case challenging Google’s dominance of digital advertising is set for final arguments in November.
Elsewhere, the Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon.
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