Antitrust Enforcers Should Embrace 'Pragmatic Skepticism,' Says FTC's Ohlhausen

Similar to how scientists embrace "pragmatic skepticism," antitrust enforcers should be wary of adopting "antitrust scholarship," said acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen at the Antitrust Writing Awards event Tuesday. Enforcers can be wrong about the future and should use regulatory humility, which is "about understanding and internalizing the limits of our own knowledge when we wield the considerable powers entrusted to us," she said in prepared remarks. Since being named acting chairman, she has given speeches about leading the commission to investigate and enforce real rather than merely theoretical harms (see 1702170026 and 1702020020). Ohlhausen said she's willing to hear new theories but also would want to get as much "probative, reliable information" as possible and would be "pretty hesitant to embrace novel theories that conflict with the answers that the well-established antitrust toolkit already provides." Acknowledging she might get criticized for being too cautious and not creative enough, she said there is a "free market for new ideas in this field. ... The process is not always neat and tidy, but eventually the best ideas emerge from the rough and tumble world of critical skepticism intact."