CES 2020: FTC Chairman Simons Says Facebook, Other Tech Investigations Are Ongoing

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons said that the FTC was still investigating Facebook for antitrust violations, and that the FTC's $5 billion settlement with the company is the thing he is most proud of over the past year. The other was the $170 million settlement with Google/YouTube over kids privacy. Chairman Simons renewed his call for Congress to pass comprehensive privacy legislation, but does not favor a Democrat-backed proposal to create a new, separate, privacy enforcement agency. He said that would be a huge mistake and that the FTC has been enforcing privacy aggressively and creatively and has the experience, expertise and morale to do the job, with some help from Congress. He said that the FTC Act, which is 100 years old, should instead be updated, and that Congress should also clarify that the FTC can recover monetary damages, something a court decision put in some doubt.