FTC Tackles Antitrust in Labor Markets

Federal Trade Commissioner Rohit Chopra set the stage for the agency’s look at tech platforms by focusing on how digital marketplaces harvest data, and how operators set the rules for buying and selling in the marketplaces. Noting that mass data collection and analysis can be used to form individualized pricing, Commissioner Chopra said the FTC must learn more about companies’ data collection practices, their use of predictive analytics and how data is monetized. Without naming any companies outright, he also raised questions about how marketplace operators can set the rules to benefit their bottom lines, like requiring a seller to pay more for premier placement. “Shedding light on how marketplaces and platforms engage in data collection and analysis, as well as how their rules and regulations promote or impede the competitive process, will be a great contribution to advancing the Federal Trade Commission’s mission and developing policy that will make sure our markets are truly working,” Commissioner Chopra said. But panelists were not shy about calling out big tech companies. Ben Thompson, who writes the tech newsletter Stratechery, offered ideas for regulating Facebook and Google in particular by preventing them from buying up potential competitors. “I consider the greatest regulatory failure in the internet era [to be] Facebook acquiring Instagram, and part of the problem was there was no framework to say why they shouldn’t be allowed to,” Thompson said. And early Facebook and Google investor Roger McNamee said antitrust action against the companies is “the best and most pro-growth remedy available.”