INTERVIEW: FTC Top Cop: How FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson is laying down the law in his new job

Andrew Ferguson, the new chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), likens himself to a “cop on the beat” and a “law enforcement officer” when it comes to fighting for consumer protection in his new role, repeatedly stressing the importance of competition throughout the marketplace. During a conversation moderated by the Washington Reporter, he discussed his plans to “vigorously and aggressively” enforce antitrust laws.

Ferguson emphasized that Big Tech can both crush innovation and take over the role of big government if left unconstrained. He cautioned that “we don't want to replace a large government with giant monopolies that get to do the same thing in our economic system.” Ferguson further elaborated that “the antitrust laws don't tell us to pursue social and political power, but they do tell us to care about market power. One of the symptoms of market power is tremendous social or political power, and that should matter to the antitrust enforcers.”

Gene Burrus, the Global Policy Counsel for the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF), which sponsored the event, told the Reporter that “the monopolistic practices of Apple and Google limit consumer choice, stifle American digital innovation, and drive-up costs." Burrus added, that “their unacceptable overreach has severe consequences for the economy and deprives us of the benefits of our free-enterprise society. We need competition and consumer protection legislation that fosters a truly competitive and fair digital marketplace.”

“We applaud Chairman Ferguson's commitment to enforcing legislation that reins in Big Tech monopolies, protects consumer choice, and ensures fair competition, as unchecked market power threatens innovation and free enterprise,” Burrus added.

Ferguson’s views on antitrust amount to: bad actors will be investigated and that he wants to “get out of the way” of everyone else. “Ex ante regulation can often unintentionally, notwithstanding the best intentions of the regulator, sort of fix entrench incumbent power,” Ferguson said. “Competition is the way we avoid ever having to confront that problem.”

“At the FTC, we are going to take incredibly seriously the fact that the antitrust laws protect competition in labor markets and that the consumer protection laws protect a huge array of conduct that Americans engage in to make a living,” Ferguson said, while emphasizing that he still believes that the agency having bipartisan commissioners remains a strength, as he had told the Reporter in an interview when he was a commissioner last year.

To that end, Ferguson defended his move to follow the tougher merger review boards advanced by the Biden administration in 2023, while adding that he reserves the right to change and update them as is needed. He added that while he voted against Biden’s FTC issuing its ruling against noncompetes, he said that the FTC will launch its “labor markets task force” and said that it will focus on noncompetes; his FTC will be “on the lookout for noncompetes that violate the antitrust laws, and we’re going to do something about them.”

“For Republicans of yore, this is a strange thing to hear, but this is the working person’s party now,” Ferguson noted. “At the FTC, we are going to take incredibly seriously the fact that the antitrust laws protect competition in labor markets and that the consumer protection laws protect a huge array of conduct that Americans engage in to make a living.”

Ferguson also didn’t shy away from fully backing President Donald Trump’s vision of the executive branch or supporting the Trump administration’s priorities.

“I think that President Trump got it right in the first term. We need to enforce our competition and consumer protection laws very vigorously across the economy. I think that matters most in places like Big Tech because we all interact with Big Tech, and we saw, in 2020, what can happen when market power is converted to social and political power.” Ferguson said, making it clear who his boss is.

Ferguson, a veteran GOP lawyer, emphasized that the vigorous enforcement of his agency ultimately leads to vigorous innovation and growth — and that Big Tech can both crush innovation and take over the role of big government if left unconstrained. “Big Tech censorship is not just un-American, it is potentially illegal,” Ferguson had previously said.

Left unspecified by Ferguson was that many view Apple and Google as the sorts of monopolists that he criticized; both companies have been under fire for stifling competition and innovation, specifically in the app store ecosystem in which both Apple and Google exert total control over the mobile app ecosystem through their iOS and Android operating systems and app stores.

While Ferguson did not specifically endorse legislation like Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s (R., Tenn.) Open App Markets Act, he is eager to see Congress reassert its role in the antitrust space and give him guidelines to work with.

“I'm generally of the view that if Congress thinks that our generally stated antitrust laws are insufficient to get at a particular problem, the best way to approach that is not to sort of put informal pressure on the antitrust enforcers to try to get at the problem, but it is to pass specific laws,” he said. “If Congress thinks there are specific problems in specific industries, pass specific laws, and if they want the FTC to enforce it, sign me up. I will enforce it vigorously, intentionally, and faithfully. But we have general antitrust laws. They've worked pretty well. I think we need to continue the trend of the last eight years and enforce them vigorously and frequently. But if Congress thinks there are specific problems that the general laws don't get to, I think passing specific laws is totally appropriate.”

Ferguson’s work on combatting the abuses of Big Tech is well known and his latest remarks were well received. “We applaud Chairman Ferguson's commitment to enforcing legislation that reins in Big Tech monopolies, protects consumer choice, and ensures fair competition, as unchecked market power threatens innovation and free enterprise,” Burrus added.

Watch our whole conversation with Chairman Ferguson HERE.