Shapiro Blasts FTC Vote on Competition Policy as Harmful to Innovators

The FTC’s vote Thursday to rescind the Obama-era competition policy statement “seems to be the first step in moving competition policy away from the consumer welfare standard,” which has enabled innovation by “focusing on what is best for consumers rather than legacy businesses using government to protect them from new entrants and innovators,” said CTA CEO Gary Shapiro Thursday. The consumer welfare standard “grounds competition policy in objective facts and evidence,” said Shapiro. By protecting consumers rather than competitors, “we ensure antitrust decisions are not subjective or political.” Other nations without consumer-based standards “have fallen behind in innovation,” he said. The FTC's “hasty” decision “to abandon the consumer welfare standard -- especially as we face unprecedented global competition in the tech sector and beyond -- is a grave mistake.”