We know we're a little late on this post but between our conference (check out our Fabulous Takeaways) and dealing with all the publicity CARU has had after its Musical.ly referral to the FTC resulted in the highest fine in COPPA history, we've been a little busy.
Still wanted to highlight that the Federal Trade
Commission’s Bureau of Competition (FTC) recently announced the creation of the
Technology Task Force. The FTC has announced this task force will be “dedicated
to monitoring competition in U.S. technology markets, investigating any
potential anti-competitive conduct in those markets, and taking enforcement
actions when warranted.”
As the technology boom continues to grow and evolve
through the 21st Century, the FTC has found it increasingly
important to monitor the technology markets. The hope is by centralizing
attention to the technology markets, the new task force will make it easier to
monitor companies and ensure they are following all antitrust laws.
This significant step shows that there are concerns
regarding the protection of personal information and that technology companies
“may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of
ideas on their platforms.” The new task force shows the FTC is listening to
the requests of almost one dozen state attorneys general who aggressively asked
the FTC to “enforce the antitrust law at the ‘intersection between privacy, big
data, and competition.” Although there have not been any cases that have
addressed these issues to date, some believe that the creation of the
Technology Task Force signals that enforcement of these antitrust regulations
are on the way.
To learn more about this topic, check out the FTC press release or this Vic Article about What the new FTC task force means for data aggregators.