Caution Needed from the New Neo-Brandeisian Majority at the FTC, Says ITIF
WASHINGTON—With the confirmation of Alvaro Bedoya as FTC Commissioner, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, issued the following statement from Aurelien Portuese, ITIF’s director of antitrust and innovation policy:
The confirmation of Alvaro Bedoya as Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission gives the Democrats a majority and enables Chair Lina Khan to implement the FTC’s regulatory priorities for 2022.
One of those priorities is to engage in rulemaking on so-called “unfair methods of competition,” although such rulemaking is both legally questionable and economically harmful.
Instead of using a newly acquired majority to engage in regrettable rulemakings, Chair Khan should use Bedoya’s privacy and consumer protection expertise to strengthen enforcement against firms engaged in egregious deceptive acts and practices.
The new majority FTC should focus on enforcing laws that benefit consumers rather than creating rules that may harm both innovation and economic growth.
For more information, please see:
- Aurelien Portuese, “American Precautionary Antitrust: Unrestrained FTC Rulemaking Authority” (ITIF, January 2022).
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The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute focusing on the intersection of technological innovation and public policy. Recognized by its peers in the think tank community as the global center of excellence for science and technology policy, ITIF’s mission is to formulate and promote policy solutions that accelerate innovation and boost productivity to spur growth, opportunity, and progress.
