OTTAWA — Shopify is expanding its government affairs teams in the U.S. and Europe, recruiting top lobbyists with experience at major Silicon Valley firms as lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic try to rein in tech giants.

Governments and regulators around the world have stepped up the pressure on large digital companies in recent months. Big Tech firms, including Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta, face a growing number of antitrust suits and have seen their executives summoned to testify before legislative committees. While Ottawa-headquartered Shopify—which rivals and partners with those firms—has yet to be the subject of such regulatory attention, it is nonetheless staffing up its policy ranks.

In July 2021, Shopify hired Maryam Mujica as vice-president of global government affairs. The former U.S. State Department official was previously head of emerging markets and international government affairs at Google, and before that she worked on public policy for Twitter. In October, Shopify named outgoing White House staff secretary Jessica Hertz as its general counsel. The former Facebook executive leads the Canadian firm’s legal department, which includes its lobbying team. Since then, Shopify has hired policy professionals from Apple and Grab to lead its efforts in the U.S. and Europe, respectively. 

Shopify’s government affairs team is focusing on regulatory proposals targeting the tech sector at large, as well as measures linked to its business model of providing software and services for merchants to sell online, lobbying records and job postings show. The issues it’s focused on include “platform regulation, competition, crypto, data protection, consumer protection, tax [and] issues relating to commercial partnerships (ads, privacy, etc.),” according to Mujica’s LinkedIn profile; the company would not make her available for an interview for this story and did not respond to The Logic’s questions. 

In the U.S., Shopify has lobbied Congress and the White House on two major pieces of digital antitrust legislation, according to Senate filings. One would prevent large firms that run app stores from requiring that developers use their payment system, while the other would stop online platforms from using third-party sellers’ data to improve their own products and from prioritizing those offerings in search and rankings. Apple, Amazon, Google and Meta, and lobby groups they fund, have opposed one or both bills, claiming they would reduce consumer choice and security.

Shopify has lobbied European Commission staffers on the Digital Markets Act, which contains similar provisions. Both the U.S. and EU rules focus on the very biggest tech platforms. “Right now Shopify might evade those thresholds, but they might not in the future,” said Vass Bednar, executive director of McMaster University’s graduate public policy program and previously a lobbyist for Airbnb in Canada. “As they grow and those rules are copied [or] imported” by governments elsewhere, such regulations have “more substantive implications for the company.” 

For example, Shopify has its own app store, through which merchants can buy plug-ins and services from third-party developers. In June 2021, the firm lowered the cut it takes of transactions in its app store, after a similar move by Apple and prior to one by Google. 

Shopify is also interested in privacy regulation. In April 2021, Apple gave users of its mobile devices the choice to disable third-party apps’ ability to track them across other software and sites. Most have done so. Shopify executives have said the move hasn’t directly affected its business, but acknowledged that it has lowered the return its clients get on social media ad spending. “It does seem like they’re late in the game” on regulatory issues, “given that policy interventions like Apple’s privacy [changes are] costing their merchants a lot of money,” said Bednar.

Shopify has recently ramped up its lobbying efforts. Filings show its EU expenses were over €100,000 for the year ending January 2021, while at the federal level in the U.S. it spent US$171,000 last year and US$120,000 in the first quarter of 2022. In Washington, D.C., it retained two partners at leading lobby firm Capitol Counsel between March 2020 and March 2022. In Brussels, Shopify has used Access Partnership, a tech-focused agency. 

The firm is also expanding its in-house government affairs team. Since March, the company has advertised eight roles, including three in Washington, D.C.; one focused on U.S. state-level policy; two pan-European positions; and country managers for France and Germany, joining an existing U.K. staffer.

Shopify’s lobbying push in the U.S. and EU reflects the areas’ financial importance to the firm. U.S.-based clients contributed US$2.97 billion of the firm’s US$4.6 billion in revenue in 2021—nearly two-thirds—with the Europe, Middle East and Africa region bringing in another US$799.6 million. 

Few of the company’s new government affairs hires will be knocking on lawmakers’ doors. Shopify expects some staff in the U.S. and EU to work with “nonprofits and civil society focused on tech policy issues, think tanks, academia and research groups,” according to job postings. The company wants to ensure “each partner understands and supports Shopify’s business model and how we only succeed if our merchants succeed.” It’s also hiring policy people in both places to create newsletters, podcasts and videos designed to “bring Shopify’s merchants and their stories to life for policymakers.” 

Building alliances and partnerships when “seeking power and influence, that’s something that’s tried and true,” said Bednar. Companies are “competing in an attention economy” on policy, so there’s an “impetus to be creative and interesting.” But Shopify shouldn’t try to “launder their thought leadership through arms-length think tanks or academics without disclosure,” as some large tech firms have reportedly done.

Bednar noted the emphasis in Shopify’s job postings on sharing merchant stories. Company executives regularly tell such tales of independent brands on earnings calls. Shopify has its own production company that’s made reality TV shows and documentaries recounting clients’ entrepreneurship experiences for broadcasters like Discovery and Disney+.  

Tech firms like Amazon, Airbnb, Doordash and Uber have been accused of using or even inventing positive worker or customer stories to make the case that they shouldn’t be regulated. “​​Shopify does have an opportunity to exemplify responsible Big Tech lobbying,” said Bednar, noting the importance of highlighting “authentic” merchant stories that focus not just on the benefits of its own technology, but also on the challenges small businesses face competing online. 

One possible target: Amazon. Shopify executives regularly describe their company’s mission as “arming the rebels” against the Seattle-headquartered e-commerce empire. Shopify’s social media accounts periodically subtweet Amazon, amplifying claims that the firm has copied products from third-party sellers on its platform. “To my mind, that’s a policy agenda,” said Bednar. “Those are the stories that [Shopify] needs to tell.”

The company seems keen to draw contrasts with other digital giants. A new, U.S.-based strategic outreach manager will be tasked with working to “demonstrate how Shopify is different from other tech—and e-commerce—platforms” to policymakers and other stakeholders. Nevertheless, the firm has signed on to industry associations that have wide tech-sector membership, including BSA, the Computer and Communication Industry Association and the Future of Privacy Forum, all of which have outposts in both Washington and Brussels.

While Shopify continues to be registered in Canada and a plurality of its 10,000-plus staff are based here, the country accounted for just 6.9 per cent of its revenue last year. Its Canadian federal registration lists only one lobbyist.