One lobby firm got caught offering money to journalists. Its client, a pharmaceutical company, was appealing a decision not to approve one of its drugs and the consultants were trying to get journalists to attend the appeals hearing. An employee wrote to journalists saying ‘…we understand that your time is valuable, we are able to offer £200 (€293) if you wish to attend.’ Later a boss admitted ’It was a total breach of policy – human error…a mistake by an individual.’

But they did not learn their lesson. On behalf of their client, the firm sent around emails to hundreds of business leaders asking them to tell politicians, regulators, and journalists they were worried about Google’s dominance of search engines. Nothing wrong with this, but they again hid the name of their client and created the impression the effort was led by some NGO-like organisation called the ‘Initiative for Competitive Online Marketplaces’. The lobby firm later had to admit the organisation was formed by Google’s competitor Microsoft.