FTC to Review Antitrust Laws In Wake of Tech Probes

The Federal Trade Commission is looking at whether the legal thresholds to bring antitrust suits need to be modified to confront today’s biggest tech companies, such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google.

Enforcers at the commission are taking “a fresh look” at the primary lens used to bring an antitrust violation, called the consumer welfare standard, FTC Chairman Joe Simons said Nov. 18 at an American Bar Association conference in Washington.

Under the consumer welfare standard, the de facto analysis used by federal antitrust enforcers, a merger or anti-competitive conduct, like price-fixing, is an antitrust violation if it results ...