Davis Polk Dialogues

The Federal Trade Commission is wrapping up its extensive series of Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century. To discuss key takeaways, Davis Polk partner and former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz sits down with partners Avi Gesser and Ronan Harty and longtime FTC official Eileen Harrington. Our panel consider the potential impact of the hearings on FTC policy and what companies need to know in areas including: Consumer privacy and cybersecurity issues associated with new technologies and big data Prospective – and possibly retrospective – reviews of technology-industry combinations, and the agency’s new Technology Task Force Indications of areas of agreement and disagreement among the FTC commissioners, all of whom are new to the role

David Vladeck, Professor at the Georgetown Law Center and former Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, sits down with Davis Polk partner and former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz and Davis Polk partners Avi Gesser and Ronan Harty, to discuss the first nine hearings and what to look for in 2019, including: The outlook for investigations and enforcement actions by the FTC Expected vertical-merger guidelines and increased concerns about acquisitions by dominant companies of nascent disrupters The momentum for privacy legislation and ways to balance the benefits and risks of Big Data 

Davis Polk partner and former FTC Chairman  Jon Leibowitz is joined by Louis Goldberg, the co-head of Davis Polk’s Mergers and Acquisitions Group, and Arthur Burke, a litigation partner at the firm with extensive antitrust experience, to discuss the emerging “populist antitrust” movement. This new approach would put greater weight on factors such as economic concentration and income inequality in evaluating deals. Our panel explores how a new antitrust standard might affect M&A, including: increased uncertainty for buyers and sellers potential changes in deal terms  a possible impact on funding and cash-out options for startups

Eileen Harrington, former Deputy Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection and a long time FTC enforcement official, sits down with Davis Polk partner and former Chairman of the FTC Jon Leibowitz and Davis Polk partners Avi Gesser and Ronan Harty to discuss why the Commission is holding these hearings; whether the Commission will continue its tradition of bipartisan collaboration; key issues to watch in the competition, consumer protection and data privacy space; and what we may expect to develop out of these hearings.