EU corporate affairs functions represent the third largest share of lobby organisations in the Transparency Register after NGOs and associations. Although not all corporate affairs offices are registered, altogether more than 2,100 companies from the continents of the world are represented to the EU institutions. An examination of the data on the Transparency Register reveals that the top 5 corporate spenders are multinationals with a US heritage, notably GE, ExxonMobil, Google, Microsoft and Dow. Indeed there are over eighty US multinational corporates with offices in Brussels. German companies Deutsche Bank, Volkswagen, Siemens, Daimler, BASF, RWE and Evonik are the second biggest national corporate spenders. Interestingly the only UK company to make the top 20 is BP, while only ENGIE and EDF represent France. China is a relatively new entry to the top 20 thanks to the expansion of the Huawei office.
the biggest spenders in brussels
| Organisation | Head office in | Lobbying costs € | EP passes | Lobbyists (FTE) | Meetings with EC |
| 1 General Electic Company | United States | 5,500,000 – 5,749,000 | 8 | 8.75 | 68 |
| 2 Google | United States | 4,250,000 – 4,499,999 | 9 | 8.25 | 144 |
| 3 Microsoft Corporation | United States | 4,250,000 – 4,499,999 | 5 | 8.5 | 82 |
| 4 IBM Corporation | United States | 1,750,000 – 1,999,999 | 3 | 5.75 | 68 |
| 5 Johnson & Johnson | United States | 1,750,000 – 1,999,999 | 13 | 4.5 | 3 |
| 6 Amgen Inc | United States | 1,250,000 – 1,499,999 | 3 | 4.25 | 0 |
| 7 Black Rock | United States | 1,250,000 – 1,499,999 | 5 | 2.5 | 28 |
| 8 Huntsman | United States | 1,250,000 – 1,499,999 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 9 Intel Corporation | United States | 1,250,000 – 1,499,999 | 4 | 5.5 | 18 |
| 10 Apple Inc. | United States | 1,000,000 – 1,249,999 | 5 | 2.5 | 23 |