Merrick Garland Wants Former Facebook Lawyer to Top Antitrust Division
Susan Davies has spent much of the last decade working on behalf of major mergers and fending off antitrust enforcement.
Susan Walsh/AP Photo
Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland is working behind the scenes to install longtime aide Susan Davies as head of antitrust at the Justice Department.
This piece has been co-published with The Intercept.
As the fight over the direction of the Biden administrationâs antitrust policy intensifies, a new figure has entered the fray, scrambling the calculus: Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland. The battle so far has largely been fought out between lobbyists for Big Tech and their allies on the one hand and skeptics of monopoly power on the other.
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While most cannabidiol (CBD) manufacturers and sellers focus on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), federal agencies outside the FDA have put their focus on the CBD industry.
On Dec. 17, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a “crackdown on deceptively marketed CBD products.” Notably, the FTC alleged that the “companies made unsupported claims that their oils, balms, gummies, coffee, and other goods could treat serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes.” As a differentiation point, FTC enforces under the Federal Trade Commission Act and focuses on whether a product claim is supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence, or whether it is not, such as a disease or health claim on a product that lacks evidence to support that claim or is otherwise unapproved by FDA.
Introduction: What Is the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”)?
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) is a federal agency that enforces consumer protection laws and competition regulation in the United States. Its dual mission is (1) to protect consumers (2) promote competition. It protects consumers by preventing unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent practices in the marketplace through its authority to investigate and sue for violations of the law. It promotes competition by keeping prices low and both quality and consumer choice high through its power to challenge anticompetitive mergers or other business practices that could harm consumers. The FTC has investigative, enforcement, and rulemaking authority.
Why Google s Antitrust Defense Is Wrong | Opinion Will Chamberlain
, Senior counsel, the Internet Accountability Project On 1/19/21 at 5:00 AM EST
Google s legal team recently broke its two-month silence on the Department of Justice s antitrust lawsuit into its use of anti-competitive and exclusionary practices to get ahead of its competitors, especially in the mobile phone marketplace.
As expected, the search engine giant didn t admit any wrongdoing. Instead, it had its high-priced lawyers disingenuously rebut the suit point by point, painting the narrative of a popular, inventive company that always puts consumers interests first.
Cue the eye-rolls.
A quick refresher for you: In October, the DOJ called out the unholy alliance between Google and other Big Tech giants, such as Apple, which changed the iPhone s default mobile browser to Google in exchange for billions of dollars.
GovInfoSecurity
HealthInfoSec) • January 18, 2021 18 Minutes Twitter
Privacy attorney Kirk Nahra of the law firm WilmerHale
The prospects for passing a U.S. privacy law will improve under the Biden administration, predicts attorney Kirk Nahra, who monitors regulations. The fact that we have both a Biden administration and Democratic control of both houses of Congress makes it somewhat more likely there s a national privacy law sooner rather than later, he says in an interview with Information Security Media Group. But soon isn t tomorrow. It s not that the first priority of the new administration and new Congress, he notes. My prediction is that there is a reasonable likelihood of a national privacy law during the first term of the Biden administration, but that s four years long.