Competition Protects Consumers, Not Protection From Government – By Rachel Chiu (Real Cleat Markets) / Aug 22, 2022
Competition Protects Consumers, Not Protection From Government – By Rachel Chiu (Real Cleat Markets) / Aug 22, 2022Congress is trying to implement long-awaited consumer privacy reforms, but the latest iteration risks endangering competition and deepening power disparities within the market.
Last month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted (53-2) to advance the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA), a bipartisan bill aimed at how companies handle consumer data and personal information. The proposed legislation will regulate a broad array of industries — any individual or entity subject to the FTC Act, in addition to common carriers and nonprofits. The goal is to create a uniform, comprehensive federal privacy framework that preempts existing state laws and functions similarly to the rules promulgated in the European Union.
Yet, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) should be a warning, not a model for U.S. data privacy legislation, given its harmful effects on competition and innovation. Legal experts and scholars have noted that the “price of data protection… was much higher than previously recognized.”
