Amazon lobbyists banned from EU Parliament | Hacker News Reader

Amazon lobbyists banned from EU Parliament

euobserver.com

76 pointsGeoAtreides19 comments

Ban all lobbyists. They should not be in any parliamentary building anywhere. Why should lobbyists gave any more privileges than any other member if the public?

Lobbyists will always have influence. A tale as old as humanity. The question is, how transparent do you want it to be?

This is an excellent point, and it confuses me to see it being downvoted.

When lobbying is transparent, it actually loses quite a lot of its power. When lobbying is hidden, it becomes far more influential. Who would you trust more? Your favourite Green Party politician, who unbeknownst to you has been hired as an influencer for GroupA, or the slimy scumbag who works as a lobbyist for a GroupA?

However, "transparency" can also be nothing more than obfuscation, when its incomplete. After all, if your favourite politician is never forced to reveal that they are an influencer, but the slimy scumbag is forced to wear a fedora marking them "transparently" as a lobbyist...

Well, guess who wins again?

GroupA.

I've seen a joke post recently that politicians should work like NASCAR drivers, in outfits covered with logos of companies that gave them money/benefits. And if that was possible to pull off... it's a really cool idea. I guess there are websites collecting that kind of data (+ stock portfolios), but making it impossible to ignore sounds fun.

My partner (academic) has worked for NGOs (making scientifically backed reports on certain subjects) that function as lobbyists within the EU parliament trying to push for greener policies.

Not all lobbying is bad. And as has been mentioned here already, banning them will just make their influence and actions more hidden.

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket Eric Hoffer.

I don't know why you try to make an exception and claim that some lobbyists in Brussels are selflessly pushing for greener policies without trying to derive personal gains for themselves. I for one see plainly that there are millions of people who stand to lose, or already have lost, profits, jobs, entire livelihoods and others who profit enormously from those green policies of the EU. Did you hear anything about the recent farmers protest across Europe?

> Did you hear anything about the recent farmers protest across Europe?

I don't know why you try to make an exception and claim that some oblivious farmers that are pushing againts greener policies in an attempt to derive personal gains for themselves are somehow in the right.

I for one see plainly that there are millions of people who stand to lose, or already have lost, profits, jobs and entire livelihoods from the ongoing crisis the world is experiencing, not to mention all those who profit enormously from keeping things as they are.

Have you heard anything about the ongoing climate catastrophe we are experiencing?

The backstory:

Seems EU politicians requested a hearing with Amazon about worker conditions which Amazon declined with the argument that it was short notice and that the hearing seemed to focus solely on Amazon despite the company consisting of less than 1% of the sector. They'd be happy to join if more companies, organizations or academics would be invited.

Apparently, politicians didn't like being turned down.

> (...) Amazon declined with the argument that it was short notice and that the hearing seemed to focus solely on Amazon despite the company consisting of less than 1% of the sector.

What a bullshit excuse. Amazon representatives represent 100% of Amazon, and answer for Amazon's labour practices.

This is the same company which a couple of years ago announced they adopted the "strive to be Earth's best employer" leadership principle, which starts to sound a lot like an abusive husband's claim they will strive to be the world's best husband.

It's fair for Amazon to not want to be singled out. Consumer protection aside, the EU is notorious for treating American businesses (which obviously are multinationals) more harshly than their European competitors.

Amazon is definitely going to run up against labor laws, but this is ridiculous; lobbying is an important part of the democratic process because it brings experts into the political process.

Amazon’s just winning friends everywhere these days…

Doesn’t keep us from buying their crap.

Absolutely does. Although their shoddy marketplace helps too.

Unfortunately my employer spends more than enough on AWS to make up for it.

Maybe not you, but it definitely does for some people. ;)

[dupe]

More discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39527379

It would be better if they were banned from the EU, but this is a start.

Europe needs to give a space for their talent to strive instead of trying to squeeze some small money from these US bigtech. Your heavy regulation is what kills your industry in the first place.

1: our industry isn't dead at all?

2: if having an industry means all our companies are like amazon, a company I view as the closest equivalent to a sci-fi evil megacorp, then I'd rather not have an industry. The current attempts by eu are not to get money out of amazon, they attempts at increasing costs for amazon to continue being evil

1. Your IT industry is essentially "dead" in a sense a similarly or better skilled software engineer earns probably even more in China than in Europe, particularly consider the living cost. On this forum I constantly see talented engineer in EU working for Amazon/Google etc, for fraction of a salary compared to US ones.

2. You still don't get the reason why Amazon-like global "evil megacorp" exists is exactly because your government regulate your local business so much that you don't have ones to naturally compete with these behemoth. Your government is part of the reason a large portion of your IT talent end up working in these "evil megacorps".

3. If you did not see I am rooting for EU small or mid business, you are just looking for some "nice" words which I couldn't care less. Yes, reality just hurts, but so what.

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