FTC Commissioner McSweeny to FCC: FTC's Consumer Protection Authority Insufficient to Discipline ISPs

Federal Trade Commission member Terrell McSweeny has doubts that the agency's consumer protection authority is sufficient to discipline the actions of broadband internet access service (BIAS) providers if Title II is rolled back and the FTC regains BIAS oversight.

In comments to the Federal Communications Commission, she said reversing Title II would harm consumers, and that the push to have the FTC regulate both edge providers (as it does now) and ISPs (as it once did) "mistakenly establishes a false equivalence between the static [and largely noncompetitive, she argues] broadband service provider marketplace on the one hand and the dynamic competition offered on the 'edge.' "The FTC is a highly expert consumer protection and competition enforcement agency, but there are limits to the effectiveness of our tools in policing nondiscrimination on networks and protecting competition in markets that are already highly concentrated," Commissioner McSweeny added. She also said antitrust laws may not cover the public-interest issues associated with consumers' ability to access content or express themselves online.