After Privacy Fix, Law Firm's Netflix Advocacy Ends

A year after Greenberg Traurig revealed that it started lobbying for Netflix Inc., the law firm's work for the video subscription service ended.

Greenberg Traurig filed a lobbying termination report with Congress last week, saying it stopped advocating for Netflix on February 28. President Barack Obama on January 10 signed into law legislation that amended the Video Privacy Protection Act, the target of Greenberg Traurig's lobbying.

Netflix hired Greenberg Traurig to push for the amendment bill, which gave the company's U.S. members the ability to use Facebook to automatically share details about movies and television shows they watch.

Passed in 1988 in response to the publication of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rentals by the Washington City Paper, the Video Privacy Protection Act barred the disclosure of a customer's rental history without the renter's written consent for each movie borrowed.

Greenberg Traurig shareholders Edward Barron and Alan Slomowitz, as well as senior director Michael Williams, handled the account.

Barron didn't have an immediate comment.

Greenberg Traurig received $180,000 from Netflix since the firm registered to lobby for the company in April 2012, according to congressional records. From January 2012 to March 2013, Netflix spent $1.3 million on federal lobbying, deploying its own staffers and lobbyists from Monument Policy Group, Kountoupes | Denham and Franklin Square Group, in addition to Greenberg Traurig.