Ohlhausen Says Her Agenda Fits With Trump's, Explains Vote Against Qualcomm Complaint
Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen's agenda lines up with that of President Donald Trump, she said on a Federalist Society podcast, in which she also explained her reasons for voting against the agency's Jan. 17 complaint against Qualcomm. The new president's priorities seem to fit "pretty well" with Ohlhausen's themes at the commission, she said, citing her longtime advocacy for "the importance of economic liberty, particularly as it's tied to job growth," and of "regulatory humility." Some in the tech and telecom industry hope Trump names Ohlhausen permanent chairman (see 1702150030).
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The commissioner repeated her approach to what she called "bread and butter fraud enforcement, where we are stopping real harms to consumers," which she has expressed in recent appearances and writings (see 1702020020 and 1701230043). Meanwhile, the agency is reducing "unnecessary compliance burdens, streamlining some of our information requests, and also providing guidance to businesses with how they can comply with" laws, Ohlhausen said. "I have objected in the past when we have focused too much on speculative harm," she said in the podcast replay, dated Thursday and tweeted out by her Friday. "We do not actually know if those harms will occur" and how market developments will affect such potential harms, she said. "I like to proceed on a case-by-case basis, focusing on harms that we understand well, that are occurring or that" are likely to, Ohlhausen said. "That helps protect consumers the best and also helps reduce any impact on market evolution and innovation."
Ohlhausen said economic liberty can include working with "other interested parties, states, governors, private organizations, academics, whoever, to identify a lot of these kinds of restrictions that have been put in place at the state level," as with occupational licensing, for example. She said she may form a task force to find such issues and thinks states want to promote economic opportunity, too.
On her agency's complaint filed against Qualcomm​ in the waning days of the Obama administration over its alleged monopoly in a market for processors used in cellphones (see 1701200002), Ohlhausen said she normally doesn't write a dissent with a case going into litigation. "This was such an extraordinary situation, in my assessment … on the eve of a change in administration, and I didn’t see the robust economic evidence or support in legal theory for the case here," she said. But she won’t "turn a blind eye if I think that intellectual property rights are being abused," Ohlhausen said. A Qualcomm executive didn't comment Friday, and Ohlhausen had no further comment about her overall priorities.
Asked about the commission's case against LabMD over a data breach (see 1701050044), Ohlhausen declined to say much on the podcast: "We are in active litigation with LabMD, so I think I’ll decline to answer that question." The case has been in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. CEO Michael Daugherty had asked Ohlhausen whether her ideas for giving industry guidance constitute sufficient standards and notice. Earlier during the event, Ohlhausen noted as she has recently that about two-thirds of the agency's investigations are closed. She'd like to make public information related to them if "there additional principles or guidance we can bring forward to say, 'This was reasonable security.’”