冲出合围 谷歌用软实力对付欧盟

Google has not had an easy recent run in Brussels.
最近，谷歌(Google)在布鲁塞尔的日子不好过。

In early September, the competition commission threw back the search engine’s proposals to settle its long-running antitrust case. Then, the EU’s incoming digital commissioner warned the company of increased scrutiny from regulators.
9月初，欧盟(EU)竞争委员会否决了这家搜索引擎就其旷日持久的反垄断案提交的和解方案。

接着，欧盟新任数字专员警告该公司，监管机构将对其加大审查力度。

Before that, the EU’s “right to be forgotten” left Google with the onerous task of removing search results if someone requested it.
在此之前，欧盟裁定的“被遗忘权”(right to be forgotten)让谷歌背上了一项艰巨的
任务：如果有人要求删除搜索结果，谷歌需要照做。

These setbacks have come despite Google increasing its lobbying efforts and launching a charm offensive in Brussels and national capitals across Europe, as the US technology group wrestles with the reality of life as a $400bn company in an increasingly strictly regulated sector.
尽管谷歌加大了游说努力，并在欧盟和欧洲各国首都发动了魅力攻势，却仍连连受挫。

作为一个监管日益严格的行业中一家市值4000亿美元的企业，这家美国科技集团正在艰难应对严酷的现实。

The group is believed to have more than doubled the amount it spends on EU lobbying since 2011. It spent roughly 1.5m lobbying EU institutions in 2013, according to the European Transparency Register, a voluntary register that tracks what businesses spend on lobbying European institutions, an increase from the 600,000 it spent in 2011.
据信，自2011年以来，谷歌在游说欧盟方面的支出增长了不止一倍。

根据专门追踪企业在欧洲游说支出的European Transparency Register的数据，2013年，谷歌斥资约150万欧元用于游说欧盟机构，高于2011年的60万欧元。

In the US, where rules on the disclosure of lobbying are stricter, technology groups report far higher spending on lobbying. Google, for example, spent $8.85m in the
first half of 2014 alone in the US – nearly four times what it said that it spent lobbying the EU for the whole of 2013.
在游说披露规定更为严格的美国，科技集团公布的游说支出要高得多。

例如，单单今
年上半年，谷歌在美国的游说支出就高达885万美元，是2013年全年该公司公布的
欧盟游说支出的近4倍。

Google declined to comment on this article. But its efforts in Europe are part of its “soft power” approach towards influencing policy makers.
谷歌拒绝就此置评。

但其在欧洲的举措是旨在影响政策制定者的“软实力”战略的一部分。

The Financial Times has spoken to several people with knowledge of how the company has built an operation worth tens of millions of dollars and focused on Brussels. It has learnt from peers, such as Microsoft, which waged its own battles with the EU in the 1990s and early 2000s and was fined a total of 2bn between 1993 and 2013. Where the Seattle group adopted an aggressive approach towards European regulators, Google has employed a “soft power” strategy using private lobbying, philanthropic initiatives and public events to try to influence policy makers. 据悉谷歌投入数千万美元设立了一项专注于布鲁塞尔的业务，英国《金融时报》记者曾与几位知情人士交谈过。

谷歌从同行身上吸取了教训，比如微软(Microsoft)在上世纪90年代和本世纪初与欧盟争斗不休，1993年至2013年总共被处以20亿欧元的罚金。

总部位于西雅图的微软以强硬的态度应对欧洲监管者，谷歌则采取了“软实力”战略，试图利用私下游说、慈善项目和公共活动影响政策制定者。

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