Law & Economics Experts Should Replace Brill, Wright at FTC
Obama & McConnell Should Pick Replacements Quickly
We at TechFreedom have certainly had our differences with her over how the Federal Trade Commission works, but Commissioner Brill has no doubt served the FTC with grace, exceptional personal charm, and a strong commitment to protecting privacy and data security. I can honestly say there’s no one I’d rather sit next to at a tech policy lunch or dinner than Julie. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors.
Her resignation (effective March 31) offers Congress an increasingly rare opportunity to exhibit some bipartisanship — dare we say, responsible governance?
Agency nominations always work best in pairs. Congress should move swiftly to fill her seat as well as the vacancy left by Joshua Wright. Tension between the EU and the US on data transfers make it ever more important that America’s chief privacy regulator be whole.
For both seats, the President and Sen. McConnell should look new Commissioners who bring both legal and economic expertise to the Commission.
President and Sen. McConnell should look new Commissioners who bring both legal and economic expertise to the Commission.
Brill distinguished herself in her focus on consumer protection issues — a matter to which Wright had just begun to apply his keen economic analysis. For over thirty years, the FTC’s Bureau of Competition has been well grounded in law and economics thinking.
The Bureau of Consumer Protection is increasingly shifting from advertising fraud cases to cases in privacy, data security and product design that involve hard tradeoffs. Those tradeoffs can only be balanced with thoughtful attention to economics. Appointing new commissioners from both ends of the law and economics spectrum would put the FTC on firm footing as it becomes the de facto Federal Technology Commission.
