Speaking at a conference at The Heritage Center in Washington, D.C. Jan. 24, Acting Federal Trade Commission Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen outlined three ways FTC policies may change under President Donald Trump's administration.
1. The FTC will work to minimize the effects of FTC actions on businesses. Under the Obama administration, Ms. Ohlhausen claimed the FTC imposed "unnecessary and disproportionate costs on business." She said the government regulation of the market "has become pervasive — its tentacles invading almost every aspect of business life." Under President Trump, Ms. Ohlhausen said she will lead the agency with a philosophy of "regulatory humility that has been absent in the last several years…Government actors [will] heed the limits of their knowledge, consider the repercussions of their actions and be mindful of the private and social costs that government actions inflict."
2. The FTC may take more action to protect intellectual property rights. Ms. Ohlhausen claimed the previous administration "discounted the value of intellectual property rights…[which are] indispensible to an innovative economy." She said select Asian countries, in particular, "take or allow the taking of American proprietary technologies without due payment." Ms. Ohlhausen said she hopes the new administration will cooperate with the FTC to protect intellectual property rights.
3. The FTC will work to dissuade the use of the regulatory process to suppress competition. According to Ms. Ohlhausen, companies have and will continue to "induce government to pass anticompetitive legislation for their favor." Under the Trump administration, Ms. Ohlhausen said she hopes to continue to "challenge abuses of government process to promote economic liberty." To do so, she advocates for the FTC to "weigh potentially anticompetitive legislation through its Office of Policy Planning."