The Federal Trade Commission’s Assault On Growth

The Federal Trade Commission’s Assault On Growth

The Federal Trade Commission continues its assault on innovation and consumers’ wellbeing under the guise of protecting us from harms that are, all too often, merely speculative. In a recent example, the FTC commissioners assert that a merger of two closely connected companies poses theoretical harm to competitors.

The FTC’s mission is to protect consumers by ensuring that markets are competitive, not to protect competitors. Presumably, the Commissioners imagine that the theoretical harm to competitors will somehow make consumers worse off, but if this sounds far-fetched, this is precisely what an FTC administrative judge concluded when hearing the case against the merger in question – Illumina and Grail.