CCIA Tells FTC to Maintain Consumer-Focused Antitrust Policies
The FTC shouldn't shift the focus of its antitrust efforts from protecting consumers to protecting companies from competition, Computer & Communications Industry Association CEO Ed Black said Monday. Summarizing comments to the agency about upcoming public hearings on consumer protection…
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and competition (see 1808030030), Black said laws that promote innovation have made the U.S. the “focal point of the digital economy.” The FTC’s comment deadline was Monday. Opt-out rules on data privacy enable companies to monetize “a greater pool of consumer information, while still empowering consumers with a choice about whether or not they want their data collected and used,” Free State Foundation representatives commented. However, rules for health, financial services and other sensitive records should require opt-in clauses, the foundation said. The Content Creators Coalition told the FTC artists are in “desperate need of help to rein in digital platforms. … We are a group of independent creators who have virtually no chance of protecting our work and getting due compensation without government intervention.” The coalition cited what it called anticompetitive abuses from platforms like Google, YouTube and Facebook. Freedom From Facebook continued its call for the FTC to break up Facebook and the social media entities it controls, and encourage “competition based on serving users, not on which company most efficiently sells user data to the highest bidder.”