The FTC has become the de facto “Federal...
The FTC has become the de facto “Federal Technology Commission,” and not always for the best, said Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, and Geoffrey Manne, executive director of the International Center for Law and Economics which calls itself a new…
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global think tank, in a Thursday email marking the FTC’s 99th anniversary (http://bit.ly/14M93I9). The FTC’s case-by-case approach since it can’t issue rulemakings is better suited to fast-changing industries than the FCC, they said. “Those traditional regulatory agencies all try to write rules based on what they imagine new technology will look like -- or what they think it should look like.” But Szoka and Manne said the FTC’s structure is “deeply problematic” and lamented that the agency hasn’t developed its own legal standards for antitrust regulation. The FTC’s habit of “strong-arming companies” into settling cases out of court is flexible, but it disposes of any legal constraints or due process, they said. “This kind of extra-legal approach cannot be the way we regulate technology in the next century.” The FTC had no comment.