FTC's Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century - Third Session

Please join antitrust partner Amy Ray at the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Third Session of its Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century, intended to stimulate thoughtful evaluation of the FTC's near- and long-term enforcement and policy agenda.

In collaboration with the Antitrust Global Institute, this session is a part of a series of public hearings the FTC is holding during late 2018. The hearings examine antitrust frameworks for evaluating acquisitions in the technology and digital marketplace as well as conduct investigations into online platforms, among other antitrust issues.

Amy will speak on a panel titled, "Understanding Exclusionary Conduct in Cases Involving Multi-Sided Platforms: Issues Related to Vertically Integrated Platforms," on Wednesday, October 17th at 10:55 AM EST. Among topics discussed at this session will be:

• Multi-sided platforms, such as Google and Amazon
• Can a platform giving preference to its own products or content constitute an antitrust violation?
• Does a platform monopolist ever have a duty to deal with downstream rivals?
• If data provides a competitive advantage to the platform, is that by itself an antitrust problem?

This hearing is free to the public and the Commission invites comments on the topic covered in each session.

All the hearings will be webcast live and can be found here the day of the event.