Simons Says FTC ‘Very Nervous’ Privacy Bill Could Entrench Tech Monopolies
The FTC is “very nervous” that overly stringent privacy regulation will entrench tech “monopolies,” Chairman Joe Simons said Friday. “If you get too much privacy, you might get a situation where it becomes hard for small companies, new entrants potentially, to compete with the more established, bigger platforms,” Simons said at an American Bar Association event.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The agency has a dual mission to protect both privacy and competition, Simons said. Congress should handle developing federal privacy regulations and not leave the task to the agency, Simons continued. Sen. Marco Rubio’s, R-Fla., privacy legislation directs the FTC to deliver privacy regulation recommendations to Congress (see 1901160047). Simons didn’t mention Rubio’s bill, however. “We’ve suggested that they not dump it on us by saying 'you take care of it, you come up with rules, you come up with regulations,'” Simons said. “We don’t want that. We want Congress to do that.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee and lawmakers should resist using antitrust law as a political weapon, said the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity Friday. Citing Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s, D-Mass., proposal to break up big tech, the group launched an advertising campaign that will target committee member states and Washington, D.C. “To prevent a politicization of an important process, antitrust decisions should be made by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice -- not by political leaders campaigning for elected office,” said Senior Tech Policy Analyst Billy Easley.
Privacy has societal implications that Congress needs to address, and the developing patchwork of state laws is an impetus to act, Simons said. If Congress delivers a bill, he reiterated the agency is seeking civil penalty authority, “targeted” rulemaking authority as in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and eliminating common carrier and nonprofit exemptions from regulatory scrutiny.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., reintroduced her opt-in consent data privacy bill Friday, as expected (see 1903040054). It would grant the FTC first-offense civil penalty authority and targeted rulemaking authority. It would require companies obtain independent privacy audits.
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro lauded DelBene’s bill, saying it shows it’s “possible to protect consumers without undermining innovation.” The plan would “significantly strengthen the FTC’s enforcement capabilities, establish uniform national rules for the digital economy, and ensure businesses are focused on protecting consumers’ most sensitive information,” he wrote.
A patchwork of state laws can make it “harder” for companies to defend themselves in cases, said National Association of Attorneys General Multistate Antitrust Task Force Chair Sarah Oxenham Allen at the ABA event. States do sometimes jointly negotiate settlements, but a company can face up to 51 different cases with different standards, she said.