FTC Announces Opening Session of Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century

The Federal Trade Commission will begin its Hearings Initiative with two full-day sessions, co-sponsored with and held at the Georgetown University Law Center, on Sept 13 and 14, 2018. The Georgetown event will be the first in a series of hearings that will examine whether broad-based changes in the economy, evolving business practices, new technologies, or international developments might require adjustments to competition and consumer protection enforcement priorities of the Commission.  These public events, in conjunction with the public comment process, will provide the FTC with a broad and diverse range of viewpoints and stimulate evaluation of key enforcement and policy issues. Additional sessions of the FTC Hearings Initiative will be held throughout the fall and early winter. An initial list of sessions and topics follows, and additional sessions and topics will be announced in the fall:

Sept 21, 2018, FTC Constitution Center

• State of U.S. Antitrust Law
• Mergers and Monopsony or Buyer Power

Oct 15-17, 2018, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

• The Identification and Analysis of Collusive, Exclusionary, and Predatory Conduct by Digital and Technology-Based Platform Businesses
• Antitrust Framework for Evaluating Acquisitions of Potential or Nascent Competitors in Digital Marketplaces
• Antitrust Evaluation of Labor Markets

October 23-24, 2018, FTC Constitution Center

• Innovation and Intellectual Property Policy

November 6-7, 2018 , American University Washington College of Law

• Privacy, Big Data, and Competition

November 13-14, 2018, Howard University School of Law

• Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and Predictive Analytics