The Federal Trade Commission, which enforces federal laws around competition and deceptive business practices, punched above its weight during the Biden admin in terms of the giant corporations the agency took on. But even in friendlier times, the FTC has not been given a budget that would fully allow the agency to fulfill its mission; In the commission’s FY 2025 budget request, the FTC cited staffing shortages amid an increase in workload: “Substantial merger activity and signs of market concentration and related competition concerns have dramatically increased the pressure on staffing resources in recent years.” Here are some of the enforcement responsibilities that the FTC could better fulfill with more staff:
- Enforcing Antitrust Laws Regionally and Against Big Businesses: The FTC’s Bureau of Competition is in charge of enforcing antitrust laws, which includes significant litigation duties. The FTC has been expanding its regional presence by creating new offices. This presence allows them to more adequately investigate anti-competitive business practices in a wider array of industries. During this process of expansion, however, the agency noted that they were often outmatched by the resources of wealthy firms they were trying to investigate: “attorneys and experts working for defendants can outmatch FTC by ten to one.” For this reason, this Bureau also requested more litigation support, such as experienced lawyers.
- Protecting Consumers From Fraud: The Bureau of Consumer Protection is in charge of preventing fraud and deceptive business practices that affect consumers by conducting investigations, as well as through litigation. In their FY 2025 budget request, the agency petitioned for more funding in order to investigate and litigate more complex matters, engage in more rulemaking work, as well as monitor compliance with the commission’s orders. This would allow the commission to expand its litigation and investigation work to many important areas, such as “health privacy and children’s privacy; unfair or deceptive practices by digital platforms; frauds using new technologies in the areas of online and mobile transactions; and harmful practices in multilevel marketing and the gig economy.”
- Conducting Economic Research For Better Antitrust Enforcement: The commission also requested funding for its Bureau of Economics, which conducts economic research to be able to better engage in investigations, rulemaking, and enforcement. “Additional BE FTEs will be used to employ a larger number of antitrust economists to support the growth in BC activities, including support for FTC merger and nonmerger enforcement investigations and litigation; competition rulemakings; and mission-relevant research—including merger retrospective studies—to help the FTC focus antitrust enforcement to maximize the agency’s ability to maintain competitive input and output markets.”
- Regulating Emerging Technology Markets: The commission requested funding for its Office of Technology, and explicitly mentioned the fast-paced development of artificial intelligence as a reason why it needs people with technical expertise. “Additional FTE in the Office of Technology (OT) will allow the agency to incorporate a greater range of technical expertise and skillsets into the agency’s law enforcement investigations and actions. Bringing on software engineers, UX designers, product managers, tech researchers, and subject matter experts who are deeply familiar with the mechanics of evolving markets and business practices will ensure that the FTC is better positioned to understand market realities more fully.” The commission also noted that being properly staffed in this way would allow them to proactively anticipate “technology-related market problems”, and engage in interventions in a more timely manner.
- Developing and Implementing Long-Term Antitrust Policy: At the Office of Policy Planning, the FTC prepares 6(b) reports, which help the agency create both long-term enforcement initiatives, as well as long-term policy implementation. “OPP can assist the Commission in developing and implementing long-range competition and consumer protection enforcement and policy initiatives and advise staff on cases raising new or complex policy and legal issues. OPP continues to provide a crucial role in preparing advocacies for the Commission and submitting filings supporting competition and consumer protection principles to state legislatures, regulatory boards, officials, state and federal courts, other federal agencies, and professional organizations.”