U.S. TECH LOBBYISTS IN BRUSSELS

American tech giants like Apple, Facebook and Google are increasingly portrayed as tax cheats, copyright infringers and privacy violators, their size and power viewed with suspicion and growing concern. As a result, some of these companies are facing sanctions as regulators, companies and individuals on the continent bring case after case against them, and in some instances even speak about breaking them up. Tech giants in Europe run up against a high degree of suspicion, or even animosity. Over the past year, EU authorities have accused Apple of exploiting tax loopholes and breaking anti-competition laws. German newspaper publishers have sued Google and Yahoo under copyright rules. And Facebook is awaiting a verdict from the European Court of Justice on whether it unlawfully shared information about European users with American authorities.

Google, in particular, is under the microscope, especially after a European Court of Justice ruling in May allowed people the "right to be forgotten" — it requires Google to delete links from search results if users request them to be removed. Tens of thousands have already applied.

Facebook has long run into problems with European data-protection regulators who want the social-networking giant to be more transparent about what it does with its users' data — it has been hauled into court a number of times in Germany and in other European jurisdictions over this issue. In the latest battle, the European Court of Justice is due to rule on a case brought by a student group, Europe Versus Facebook, that alleges the social network unlawfully transmitted its users' personal data from Facebook accounts to the U.S. government.

Another area causing deep ire in Europe is American companies' aggressive push to win the best tax deals for themselves by jurisdiction-shopping. The European Commission has released documents explaining why it decided in June 2013 to open an investigation into whether Apple received unfair tax breaks from Ireland that could violate European anti-competition rules. The Commission is also reportedly looking into a tax arrangement between Amazon and Luxembourg.

Meanwhile, Yahoo regularly talks to with European policymakers about the promotion of an innovation-friendly business atmosphere in Europe. Earlier this summer, a select group of large German media outlets filed a claim against Yahoo Germany and Google for copyright royalties for using headlines and a few sentences from the outlets' websites. The company is fighting back: Yahoo Germany filed a lawsuit against a 2013 amendment to the country's copyright law with the German Constitutional Court in late July challenging a provision — known locally as the "Google tax" — that could force news aggregators to pay for snippets of content.

Still, the overarching clash with Europeans is actually over size — a conflict that was notable in a case involving Microsoft that cost the tech giant dearly in 2004. After five years of investigation, European regulators determined that the maker of Windows had abused its dominant position in the PC operating system market and slapped the company with a nearly $800 million fine.

Aside from the pending case for royalties, German media outlets also filed a complaint with German antitrust authorities, saying that Google is so big they were forced to agree to allow their content to be aggregated or face a competitive disadvantage. The complaint was dismissed but is likely to come up again, say attorneys.

Who’s Who

Google: Google has one of the most complex European lobbying operations among Internet companies. It operates a significant team in Brussels, but also has staff in most other major European capitals — including Berlin.

Key players:

• Antoine Aubert, Head of Google’s Brussels Policy Team
• Simon Hampton,  Director of Public Policy in Europe
• Annette Kroeber-Riel, European Policy Counsel, heads up the German lobbying effort
• Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel based in Paris
• Sarah Hunter, Head of UK Public Policy

Facebook

Key players:

• Erika Mann, Managing Director of Public Policy
• Richard Allan, Director of Policy in Europe

Apple

Key players:

• Claire Thwaites, Director of Apple’s EMEIA Government Affairs
• Jaymeen Patel, Senior Government Affairs Manager

Amazon

Key players:

• Andrew Cecil,  Director of Public Policy in Brussels
• Saskia Horsch, Senior Public Policy Manager.

Microsoft

Key Players

• John Vassallo, Vice President of EU Affairs,
• Stephen Collins, Head of EU Policy

eBay

Key Player

•  Stefan Krawczyk, Associate General Counsel and Head of Government Relations EMEA

Yahoo

Key Player

• Dawn Airey, Senior Vice-President EMEA