Continuing a Conversation About the FCC’s Merger Review Process

Six weeks after the Federal Communications Commission completed its high profile review of the Comcast/NBCU transaction, Commissioner Meredith Baker suggested that the agency’s transaction review process should be overhauled. Her first concern is with the statutory mandate for the FCC and the antitrust enforcement agencies to review competition concurrently. Commissioner Baker raises concerns with the costs of a long merger review process. Yet she also recognizes the need for careful review. Commissioner Baker also questions whether the FCC at times goes too far afield when imposing conditions to assure that mergers serve the public interest, leading it to impose some conditions that may be unrelated to the transaction. The wide range of conditions in the typical merger order is easy to explain: it is the natural and foreseeable result of the statutory “public interest” charge to the agency.

[Baker is the FCC's Chief Economist]