Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. The FDC is not
Speaker 1: taking its foot off the gas when it comes to
Speaker 1: enforcement action.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: That's according to its chairman, Andrew Ferguson. We sat down
Speaker 1: with them earlier today to discuss the FDC's mission under
Speaker 1: the second Trump administration and how he will approach dealing
Speaker 1: with big tech.
Speaker 2: Just take a listen.
Speaker 3: I think if you are a big tech company, you
Speaker 3: should be getting your lawyers to give you great advice
Speaker 3: on complying with our competition and consumer protection laws. Look,
Speaker 3: I don't have a particular acts to grind within the industry,
Speaker 3: but I do think it's very important that the FTC
Speaker 3: devote its resources to the markets that Americans most frequently
Speaker 3: engage with. It's not just big tech, although that's definitely
Speaker 3: one of them. It's also healthcare, and it's protecting American
Speaker 3: as laborers. But no matter who you are, I think
Speaker 3: it's important to proceed like the FTC is a vigilant
Speaker 3: cop on the beat.
Speaker 2: We're surveying them markets.
Speaker 3: We're looking for competition problems, we're looking for violation of
Speaker 3: the consumer protection laws, and if we.
Speaker 2: Think they're there, we're going to go to court.
Speaker 3: But most importantly, if we don't think that there are problems,
Speaker 3: it's really important for the FTC to get out of
Speaker 3: the way. Again, one of the most consistent complaints that
Speaker 3: I've heard about the previous administration was a lack of
Speaker 3: certainty and a tendency to want to do a lot
Speaker 3: of regulating the FTC.
Speaker 2: We're not regulators. We're cops on the beat.
Speaker 3: We police for competition problems and consumer protection problems, but we're.
Speaker 2: Not trying to regulate the economy.
Speaker 3: We want to create economic conditions that allow companies to innovate,
Speaker 3: to grow, and to help lift the whole country out
Speaker 3: of this debt crisis and bring about the golden age
Speaker 3: that President Trump has promised the American people talk.
Speaker 1: About striking that balance because many would say, if I
Speaker 1: look at Europe, they regulate too much. There's too much enforcement.
Speaker 1: But in many ways they're being a strict coup on
Speaker 1: the beat. Some would say, so from your perspective, are
Speaker 1: you seeing overregulation and you Europe And is there a
Speaker 1: worry about stifling innovation in the United States by the
Speaker 1: amount of focus you have on big tech right now?
Speaker 3: Well, I do think that Europe has a real regulatory problem.
Speaker 3: It has an innovation problem, and we definitely don't want
Speaker 3: to create conditions here in the United States that suppress innovation.
Speaker 3: But I think it's important to bear in mind monopoly
Speaker 3: suppresses innovation. Monopoly makes it very difficult for little companies
Speaker 3: with the next.
Speaker 2: Great idea to sort of rise.
Speaker 3: And I think it's very important if we want to
Speaker 3: sort of preserve the American innovating spirit, that we create
Speaker 3: conditions in our economy that allow little tech who have
Speaker 3: the next great ideas, the next life changing ideas for
Speaker 3: all Americans to thrive. President Trump has been pretty emphatic
Speaker 3: on the importance of making sure that our economics system
Speaker 3: allows little tech to bring its ideas to market. And
Speaker 3: that's what antitrust really does, is it prevents monopoly, and
Speaker 3: monopoly stifles innovation. So if the antitrust cops are vigilant
Speaker 3: and are making sure that they're protecting us from competition problems,
Speaker 3: it allows the innovation that has made America and our
Speaker 3: economy sort of the driving engine of the whole world.
Speaker 1: What deals do you think can get done? Is there
Speaker 1: any prescription you can give us to this MNA will
Speaker 1: look good if you are a big tech ying a
Speaker 1: little tech.
Speaker 3: I think that the deals that can get done are
Speaker 3: the deals that are lawful. And I think the most
Speaker 3: important thing I want to take away from this is
Speaker 3: I see it as my job to scrutinize deals consistently
Speaker 3: with the timeline Congress created.
Speaker 2: And our antitrust laws.
Speaker 3: And if we think that they are illegal and we
Speaker 3: think that we can win in court, we're going to
Speaker 3: go to court. But if we don't think that they
Speaker 3: are illegal or we don't think we can win in court,
Speaker 3: the FTC is going to get out of the way again.
Speaker 2: I've heard this complain a.
Speaker 3: Lot from the business community that in the previous administration,
Speaker 3: a deal would enter the FTC and it would sort
Speaker 3: of disappear, and sometimes it could disappear for months while
Speaker 3: you know, novel ideas were loaded, different theories, and sometimes
Speaker 3: it sort of seemed like the FTC was hoping that
Speaker 3: deals would die on the vine while they waited for
Speaker 3: regulatory clearance.
Speaker 2: I want nothing to do with that.
Speaker 3: If a deal is illegal and I think we can
Speaker 3: win in court, I'm going to go to court. But
Speaker 3: if it's not, we're going to get out of the
Speaker 3: way and we're going to let deals go forward.
Speaker 2: M and A is part of how the economy grows.
Speaker 3: It's an important part of fostering a system that allows
Speaker 3: for innovation and dynamism. But we have to make sure
Speaker 3: that we don't create monopoly, and I see that as
Speaker 3: my job. If we think there's a monopoly problem, then
Speaker 3: the government's going to intervene. But if not, we've got
Speaker 3: to get out of the way as quickly as possible
Speaker 3: and let the economy grow.
Speaker 1: Does the AI space look like it's thriving or do
Speaker 1: you worry about monopolistic behavior there?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it is extremely important that we protect
Speaker 3: competition in the AI space, But I think it is
Speaker 3: equally important that the government not race to regulate AI.
Speaker 3: Vice President Vance's speech in Europe on AI, I think
Speaker 3: is about the perfect way to thread this needle. We've
Speaker 3: got to ensure that there's competition. We got to ensure
Speaker 3: there's competition because competition promotes promotes innovation. But we can't
Speaker 3: have the government come in with a heavy regulatory hand
Speaker 3: and stifle innovation. Again, we don't want monopoly stifling innovation.
Speaker 3: We don't want big government stifling innovation. And admittedly that's
Speaker 3: not an easy needle to thread, but That's how I
Speaker 3: think about it, is protect competition, but don't over regulate AI,
Speaker 3: because that's exactly how we're going to kill the innovated
Speaker 3: prospects of AI.
Speaker 1: You started all of this by talking about the very
Speaker 1: close look you're going to take at every enforcement action
Speaker 1: that's out there at the moment, whether you pursue it
Speaker 1: or not. But just that assessment takes a lot of labor.
Speaker 1: You've also said you've got the resources. I know everyone's
Speaker 1: been to asking you about what this lawyer said in
Speaker 1: court yet last week regarding the Amazon Prime deal, and
Speaker 1: ultimately you've been saying he was wrong, and they came
Speaker 1: out and said that, no, we do have enough resources,
Speaker 1: even though he said there's an extremely severe reasils shortfall
Speaker 1: in terms of money and personnel at the FTC. Have
Speaker 1: you got the right amount to people and how are
Speaker 1: you living up to Doge's necessities to slim.
Speaker 2: Down Well, I didn't say that the lawyer was wrong.
Speaker 2: The lawyer said the lawyer was wrong.
Speaker 3: He filed something almost immediately after his statements to the
Speaker 3: court explaining we don't have the resource constraints that he thought.
Speaker 2: We don't have resource constraints. I've said from day one.
Speaker 3: We've got the resources to litigate these cases.
Speaker 2: That remains true. But I also want to be clear.
Speaker 3: I think that the President's efficiency agenda is one of
Speaker 3: the most important things going in government right now. Government
Speaker 3: should not be any larger than necessary to deliver the
Speaker 3: services and protections that the American people deserve and that
Speaker 3: the FTC.
Speaker 2: Look, we're a lean operation.
Speaker 3: Our budget is less than half a billion dollars, we've
Speaker 3: only got around thirteen hundred employees, and we deliver a
Speaker 3: lot of value for the American people. But we have
Speaker 3: got the resources we need to deliver on our competition mandate,
Speaker 3: our consumer protection mandate. But we're all always looking to
Speaker 3: be as efficient as possible.