Google spent $5.03 million on lobbying in the first quarter of the year, the New York Times reported Monday. According to filings with the US House of Representatives, the company's spending represents a 240 percent increase from a year ago. It's a possible reflection of Google's increased struggles with government agencies and privacy advocates over its business practices, but also of its crusade against PIPA and SOPA.

In just the last few months, Google has been caught bypassing Safari's Do Not Track setting, and was slapped with a (minuscule) fine for obstructing a case investigating its Street View vans to that collected data from unsecured WiFi networks (including e-mail addresses and webpage requests). These moves, along with the company's privacy policy changes in March, have earned it many side-eyes from lawmakers and regulatory agencies.

From January to March of this year, Google spent over $5 million on lobbying, nearly matching its entire 2010 lobbying budget of $5.2 million. If the company maintains this pace, it will likely earn itself a spot as one of the top ten spending entities for the year as logged by Open Secrets. Comparing this same rate with 2011 figures, Google would outspend the entire tobacco industry ($17.07 million), the combined spending of JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup ($18.67 million), but would be just barely behind the combined budgets of pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Merck ($20.685 million). For comparison, Apple spent only $500,000 for the same 2012 quarter; Microsoft spent $1.79 million.

Google's spending may look excessive on the surface, but it's important to note the company also spent some $4 million lobbying against SOPA and PIPA, two bills that overreached in their restrictive powers with the purported goal of stopping content piracy, according to CNN. If the company chooses not to continue the fight against CISPA and other bills similar to SOPA and PIPA that rise in their wake, its spending may drop off for the rest of the year.