Sen. Hawley Seeks Unredacted FTC Antitrust Report on Google From 2012
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote to the FTC Tuesday asking it to release a complete version of its 2012 report on potential anti-competitive behavior at Google. Half the report was inadvertently released in 2015, but the remaining pages are important for knowing whether the platform deceived consumers, he said during a Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing Tuesday.
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The agency needs the public’s help when investigating companies for competitive reasons, testified FTC Competition Bureau Director Bruce Hoffman. Hawley questioned Hoffman about recent reports on Snap’s Project Voldemort. That project apparently includes Snap’s record-keeping on Facebook’s alleged anti-competitive behavior. Hawley said that included Facebook’s apparent use of Instagram to stop Snap material from trending and getting to get influencers to not mention Snap.
Hoffman declined to comment on its Facebook investigation but said generally that’s the kind of information the FTC is “constantly looking for.” The FTC is monitoring for systematic conduct aimed at disadvantaging rivals, and it needs to build that knowledge with the market. It’s fair to say the FTC has concerns about companies buying rivals and using those companies to strangle other rivals, he said. Hoffman declined to answer questions after the hearing.
The FTC should be more open and forthcoming when discussing its investigations, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Hoffman. That could encourage the public and entities to come forward with information about companies, Blumenthal said. He cited the agency’s “failure” to be more specific about its efforts, saying FTC Chairman Joe Simons’ recent testimony was no different (see 1909170066). Blumenthal also suggested the agency consider interoperability, which was important in DOJ’s Microsoft case. Hoffman said the FTC weighs interoperability as a remedy in antitrust cases, but Blumenthal noted it wasn’t included in Facebook’s $5 billion privacy case.
“Buying a rival is one way of killing a rival, potentially,” Hoffman testified. But he said every acquisition shouldn’t be assumed good or bad for competition. It’s possible to be a mix of both, he said.
Statistics suggest agencies either aren’t finding deals to challenge, or are hesitant to take action, testified American Antitrust Institute President Diana Moss, citing her organization’s white paper. The average rate of increase in big tech acquisitions between 1987 and 2018 is almost 20 percent per year, she said. Hoffman questioned the study's credibility, saying it looked at only a narrow set of acquisitions from the tech industry. Agencies need to address a weak record of enforcement, she said.
It’s questionable whether YouTube would have grown into such a useful service for consumers without Google acquiring it, said George Mason University law professor John Yun. The same could be argued about Instagram and Facebook, he said. At the time of Facebook’s purchase, “Instagram had zero revenues and a handful of employees. Since Facebook’s acquisition, Instagram has grown from 30 million users to well over one billion,” he said.
More resources would help the Competition Bureau, Hoffman said.