October 14, 2018

ICLE Comments, Antitrust law and the consumer welfare standard

Dirk Auer & Gus Hurwitz & Geoffrey A. Manne & Julian Morris & Kristian Stout

Executive Summary Since the original Pitofsky hearings, much has fundamentally changed in the way the firms do businesses. Yet, despite these rapid and fundamental shifts in technology and behavior, we…

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

October 14, 2018

ICLE Comments, the regulation of consumer data

Dirk Auer & Gus Hurwitz & Geoffrey A. Manne & Julian Morris & Kristian Stout

Executive Summary These comments were submitted to the FTC as part of its hearings on “Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century.” In these comments, we analyze three overarching…

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

October 14, 2018

ICLE COMMENTS, Whether the U.S. economy has become more concentrated and less competitive

Dirk Auer & Gus Hurwitz & Geoffrey A. Manne & Julian Morris & Kristian Stout

Executive Summary These comments were submitted to the FTC as part of its hearings on “Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century.” In these comments, we note three high…

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

October 14, 2018

ICLE Comments, The current landscape of competition and consumer protection law and policy

Dirk Auer & Gus Hurwitz & Geoffrey A. Manne & Julian Morris & Kristian Stout

Executive Summary These comments were submitted to the FTC as part of its hearings on “Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century.” As part of our comments, we note the…

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

June 14, 2018

For LabMD, the Devil is in the Not-So-Well Specified Details

Geoffrey A. Manne & Gus Hurwitz & Kristian Stout

The Eleventh Circuit’s LabMD opinion came out last week and has been something of a rorschach test for those of us who study consumer protection law. Neil Chilson found the result to be a disturbing sign of slippage in Congress’s command that the FTC refrain from basing enforcement on “public policy.” Berin Szóka, on the other hand, saw the ruling as a long-awaited rebuke against the FTC’s expansive notion of its “unfairness” authority.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

October 6, 2017

When “Reasonable” Isn’t: The FTC’s Standard-less Data Security Standard

Kristian Stout & Geoffrey A. Manne

Although the FTC is well-staffed with highly skilled economists, its approach to data security is disappointingly light on economic analysis. The unfortunate result of this lacuna is an approach to these complex issues lacking in analytical rigor and the humility borne of analysis grounded in sound economics.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

January 3, 2017

Amicus Brief, LabMD Inc., v. FTC, 11th Circuit

Geoffrey A. Manne & Kristian Stout & Berin Szoka

Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45 [“Section 5”], is a consumer protection statute, not a data security rule...This fundamental point has been lost in the Commission’s approach to data security.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

May 1, 2016

Restoring Congressional Oversight of the Second National Legislature

Geoffrey A. Manne & Berin Szoka

Congressional reauthorization of the FTC is long overdue. It has been twenty-two years since Congress last gave the FTC a significant course-correction and even that one, codifying the heart of the FTC’s 1980 Unfairness Policy Statement, has not had the effect Congress expected.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

April 29, 2015

NOMI TECHNOLOGIES, INC.: THE DARK SIDE OF THE FTC’S LATEST FEEL-GOOD CASE

Geoffrey A. Manne & Ben Sperry & Berin Szoka

"Last week the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled a privacy case – In the Matter of Nomi Technologies, Inc. – that, on its face, will seem banal, but actually raises significant questions about the FTC’s understanding of its broad consumer protection authority..."

Antitrust & Consumer Protection