As technology advances and the economy changes, our understanding of definable markets, industries and products also evolves. Regulators today must grapple with two-sided markets and “big data,” concepts not nearly as prominent just a decade ago. The advance of these concepts begs the question: Are the current approaches to antitrust review effective in protecting competition in these new markets? The heads of both U.S. regulatory authorities recently took up this question, yet reached different results.

FTC Open to Change

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) new chairman, Joseph Simons, recently announced that the FTC will conduct several hearings in the fall to determine whether developments in areas such as privacy, big data and large technology platforms warrant changing the agency’s approach to these “hot-button” antitrust issues. Simons noted that the hearings are in response to “important and significant” questions that have been posed in light of technological advances and changes in the economy. The project, “Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century,” is largely modeled after a similar series of hearings conducted in 1995, under former chairman Robert Pitofsky.