Newly uncovered 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 outlets.
In May 2023, Google tried enlist the USTR in its fight to defeat or at least water down Canada’s Online News Act, which took effect last December. The law requires Google and Facebook parent Meta to pay publishers for the right to display their content online. Meta exited Canada in response.
That month, Google’s head of trade policy Nicholas Bramble emailed three USTR staffers – senior director for services and digital trade Andrea Boron, deputy assistant trade representative Robb Tanner and director for Canada Randall Oliver – to request a meeting on “upcoming developments on Canada.”
The USTR granted the request for a meeting, which took place just four business days later, the emails show. On June 5, the USTR’s Boron thanked the Google staffers 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 provides a glimpse of what the group describes as a “shadow war” by Big Tech firms to “hijack US trade policy” for their benefit – in part by maintaining a “revolving door” relationship with the key 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 vice president of news Richard Gringas warned that the company would “reconsider” offering news content in Canada if the law took effect. Google also offered an opinion piece by the Financial Times which argued in favor of “other, less confrontational solutions.”
The messages were part of a tranche of emails between Google and Amazon executives and USTR officials exchanged from May 2023 through April 2024. They were obtained through a Freedom of Information act request by Demand Progress and exclusively provided to The Post.
“We cannot allow giant corporations to hijack the government, bypass the Senate-confirmed United States Trade Representative, and replace the policy priorities that serve all of us with new ones that serve no one but them and their shareholders,” 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 Canada legislation. A day later, the USTR’s Boron replied to set up a phone 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 ultimately cut a last-minute deal with Canada last November and agreed to pay $74 million to media outlets.
Google extracted a concession by securing the right to negotiate with a consortium of local news outlets rather than with each of them individually. Google’s chief legal officer Kent Walker took a victory lap, stating 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, especially ones that could harm US consumers and interests.”
Castañeda added, “Both publicly and privately, we shared our concerns about foreign government policies that disadvantage American companies, and we will continue to do so.”
A USTR spokesperson said that the work of the agency chief Katherine Tai and her team “over the last 3.5 years shows an unwavering commitment to workers and standing up for their rights.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s trade agenda is specifically designed to give workers a seat at the table after they’ve been overlooked for decades,” the spokesperson added.
Watchdogs warn Big Tech is using its influence over the USTR and other federal agencies to help shape a lenient regulatory policy model, both in the US 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 pass anti-monopoly laws, according to critics.
“US businesses aren’t monolithic, and USTR often has to choose between advancing the interests of US 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, the USTR’s Danielle Fumagalli emailed Amazon and Google staffers for their takes on a proposal in Japan aimed at helping domestic cloud-computing firms compete for government contracts and explain “how problematic this change would be for you.”
Fumagalli’s email to Amazon appeared to be addressed to Mary Thornton, who was then the head of trade and export controls policy for the ecommerce giant’s cloud unit. Thornton worked as a director at the USTR before joining Amazon.
The cozy ties between Amazon and the federal agency were also on display during an exchange in May 2023.
USTR’s Boron directly emailed Amazon’s head of US trade policy, Kate Kalutkiewicz, to set up a call ahead of a meeting between the agency and Brazilian telecom regulator ANATEL.
Kalutkiewicz had previously served as USTR’s director for Brazil before joining Amazon.
At the time, ANATEL was mulling regulations that would impact Amazon and other Big Tech platforms.
“Would be helpful if you have anything to share,” Boron wrote.
When reached for comment, an Amazon spokesperson said that “like many other American companies with significant domestic investments and job creation, we advocate on issues that are important to our customers and our sellers, and that includes maintaining open lines of communication with officials across all levels of government.”
Emily Peterson-Cassin, the 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 US Trade Representative’s office on a level that other policy advocates simply do not receive.
“It’s their job to work for the public good,” Peterson-Cassin said. “It’s not their job to work for the good of Big Tech.”
While their names do not appear on the email threads, Google currently employs several high-level policy staffers who formerly 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 batch of emails between Google and the USTR – including messages related to the Online News Act.
The situation has caught the attention of Congress.
In an April 2023 letter to Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a group of Democratic lawmakers slammed an effort by “tech industry groups” to kill the Online News Act by getting it labeled as “illegal trade discrimination” during negotiations on an international trade deal called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.
Tai has worked to counteract the dynamic and has “resisted forces that are trying to skew trade policy in favor of big business” since taking over as US trade representative in 2021, according to Peterson-Cassin.
“This is exactly the kind of leadership we need moving forward,” Peterson-Cassin added.
Google and Amazon are scrambling to avoid regulatory crackdowns that could upend their business models on multiple fronts. Both firms unprecedented antitrust scrutiny in the US and abroad over their alleged efforts to suffocate rivals, as well as legislative action in various countries aimed at reining in their dominance.
In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly over online search.
A separate Justice Department case challenging Google’s dominance over digital advertising is set for closing arguments in November.
Elsewhere, the Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon.