Five building blocks for antitrust success: the forthcoming FTC competition report

Between Sept 2018 and June 2019, the Federal Trade Commission conducted a series of public hearings to study the landscape of competition and consumer protection. The next step—and the crucial one—is for the FTC to integrate the lessons learned from those proceedings into its day-to-day work. Here are five building blocks for successful antitrust enforcement that the FTC should embrace in order to, as its Chairman Joseph Simons said (quoting his predecessor Bob Pitofsky), “restore the tradition of linking law enforcement with a continuing review of economic conditions to ensure that the laws make sense in light of contemporary competitive conditions.”

1. Antitrust enforcers should pay attention to growing market concentration
2. Business models are evolving, which can change the terms of competition
3. Antitrust enforcement protects competition, not just consumers who buy things
4. Modern economic analysis is up to the challenge
5. Congress gave the FTC broader enforcement tools than just the Sherman and Clayton Acts

This is the moment when the FTC can again demonstrate the intellectual curiosity that was the basis for its creation—as an expert agency that rigorously analyzes markets and competition. The FTC’s competition hearings provide both a map for antitrust enforcement and a benchmark against which to measure future administrative and judicial decisions. Publication of a strong, pro-enforcement report and the integration of its learnings into the day-to-day work of the FTC will be an important and necessary step in the right direction.

[Jonathan Sallet is a senior fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.]