NCTA: FTC Needs to Maintain Light Regulatory Touch

NCTA: The Internet & Television Association says the Federal Trade Commission needs to take a light-touch approach to regulating the wildly competitive communications marketplace, but apply that touch to everyone in the space. That came in comments in advance of months-long FTC hearings on what, if any, changes need to be made to how the agency protects competition and consumer welfare in the digital age. That also comes as that job is getting bigger with the Federal Communications Commission's deregulation of network neutrality rules, which puts the primary oversight of ISP conduct in the hands, quite capable hands NCTA argues, of the FTC. NCTA points out that when the FTC last undertook such a review--in 2007--it concluded that in the fact of burgeoning competition and innovation, it should take a cautious approach to regulation, and rely on market forces in the absence of demonstrable consumer harm. NCTA says that was the right approach then, and is even more so today. The wrote, "at a minimum, there is plainly no reasonable basis in today’s marketplace for singling out ISPs for unique regulatory burdens. To the contrary, as discussed further below, recent experience suggests that large Internet platform providers pose a greater risk to Internet openness and consumer privacy than ISPs."