Federal Trade Commission

This report was compiled in response to a directive for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to “conduct a comprehensive internal assessment measuring the agency’s current efforts related to data privacy and security while separately identifying all resource-based needs of the FTC to improve in these areas." First, the report provides an overview of the FTC’s authority related to privacy and security, highlighting certain recent efforts in those areas. Second, it discusses priorities for improving the effectiveness of our efforts to protect Americans’ privacy.

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan appointed Holly Vedova as Director of the agency’s Bureau of Competition and Samuel A.A. Levine as Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. Vedova and Levine have been serving in their roles in an acting capacity since June 2021. 

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan laid out her strategic approach and vision in a memo to FTC staff. Khan's five principles stated the FTC needs to:

The Federal Trade Commission voted to withdraw its approval of the Vertical Merger Guidelines, issued jointly with the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the FTC’s Vertical Merger Commentary. The guidance documents, which were published in 2020, include unsound economic theories that are unsupported by the law or market realities. The FTC is withdrawing its approval in order to prevent industry or judicial reliance on a flawed approach. In voting to withdraw, the FTC reaffirmed its commitment to working closely with the DOJ to review and update the agencies’ merger guidance.

The Federal Trade Commission made public the findings from its inquiry into past acquisitions by the largest technology platforms’ that did not require reporting to antitrust authorities at the FTC and the Department of Justice. The inquiry analyzed the terms, scope, structure, and purpose of these exempted transactions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act and the FTC's reporting requirements by Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019. These companies comprise the top five US companies by market capitalization.

The Federal Trade Commission voted to approve and make public a series of resolutions that will enable agency staff to efficiently and expeditiously investigate conduct in core FTC priority areas over the next ten years. Streamlining and improving efficiency at the agency is vitally important given the increased volume of investigatory work created by the surge in merger filings. Having already doubled between 2010 and 2020, the number of mergers filed with the antitrust authorities this year hit a record-setting pace of 2,067 acquisitions for the first seven months alone.