Breaking up Google would be a “very dangerous thing” because the U.S. needs “great companies” against competitors like China, former President Donald Trump told Fox News Tuesday. DOJ recently told a federal court that a breakup should be considered in the department’s antitrust lawsuit against the company (see 2410090035). “It’s a very dangerous thing because we want to have great companies,” said Trump. “We don’t want China to have these companies.” However, Trump also said Google is powerful and “very bad to me.” He repeated claims that the platform favors negative stories about him and his campaign (see 2409300036).

The FTC on Wednesday announced finalization of a rule establishing civil penalty authority for the agency to prevent companies from misrepresenting consumers’ subscription cancellation options (see 2303230055). The commission voted 3-2 to publish a final rule modifying the agency’s Negative Option Rule, which regulates industry practices surrounding automatic subscription renewals. Republican Commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson dissented. The rule is set to take effect 180 days after publication in the Federal Register. FTC Chair Lina Khan said the rule will help stop companies from making consumers “jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription. ... Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.” The final rule bans companies from “misrepresenting any material fact” in related marketing. It requires companies “clearly and conspicuously disclose material terms prior to obtaining a consumer’s billing information in connection with a negative option feature.” They must “obtain a consumer’s express informed consent to the negative option feature before charging the consumer” and “provide a simple mechanism to cancel the negative option feature and immediately halt charges.” Holyoak issued a dissenting statement saying the FTC’s rule exceeds its statutory authority and “may not survive legal challenge.” Khan rushed finalization of the rule to follow through on a campaign pledge of Vice President Kamala Harris, Holyoak said. The rule, Holyoak argued, fails to specifically define the acts or practices that are unfair or deceptive, or that these activities are “prevalent,” as required under agency rulemaking procedure. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce called the subscription rule the “latest power grab by the Commission in its pursuit to micromanage business decisions.” Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley said: “Not only will this rule deter businesses from providing sensible, consumer-friendly subscriptions, but it will leave Americans with fewer options, higher prices, and more headaches.” Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, welcomed the new rule but urged that Congress craft legislation. “Free trials should be free, but instead some companies have used that model to lure and trap customers into subscriptions with costly monthly charges they never meant to make." He urged passage of the Unsubscribe Act, which he introduced with Sens. John Thune, R-S.D.; Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.; and John Kennedy, R-La.

X's online social networking service isn't a "gatekeeper" under the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Commission said Wednesday. The determination followed a market investigation launched in May after X notified the EC that it might be a gatekeeper. Under the DMA, companies are designated gatekeepers if they have a certain annual revenue in the European Economic Area and provide platform services in at least three EU countries; offer core platform services to more than 45 million monthly active end-users in the EU and more than 10,000 yearly active businesses established in the EU; and if they met the second criterion over the past three years (see 2309250020). X argued that its social networking service shouldn't qualify as a key gateway between businesses and consumers, and the EC agreed. However, it said it will continue monitoring market developments.

Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat must defend themselves against claims that their platforms are designed to “foster compulsive use by minors,” the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled Tuesday (docket 4:22-md-03047-YGR). Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled on hundreds of consolidated legal claims filed on behalf of children, school districts, local governments and state attorneys general. The ruling covered lawsuits from 35 different states, including California, New York, Georgia and Florida. Rogers “generally denied” the companies’ motions to dismiss but limited many claims' scope. “Much of the States’ consumer protection claims are cognizable,” she said. “Meta’s alleged yearslong public campaign of deception as to the risks of addiction and mental harms to minors from platform use fits readily within these states’ deceptive acts and practices framework.” However, she noted Communications Decency Act Section 230 provides a “fairly significant limitation on these claims.” Section 230 also protects against “personal injury plaintiffs’ consumer-protection, concealment, and misrepresentation theories,” she said. Rogers declined to dismiss “theories of liability predicated on a failure-to-warn of known risks of addiction attendant to any platform features or as to platform construction in general,” including claims against YouTube, Snap and TikTok. The companies didn’t comment.

New Hart-Scott-Rodino rules will mean increased time and cost when filing premerger notifications with the FTC and DOJ, antitrust attorneys said Monday. The FTC on Thursday announced finalization of new HSR filing rules. It said the changes will help enforcers “detect illegal mergers and acquisitions prior to consummation.” The commission voted 5-0 to finalize the changes. They include requirements for filing additional transaction documents, high-level business plans and disclosures of investors in the buying party. The FTC estimates the new rules will add 68 hours to the average time for preparing an HSR filing and increase the cost by about $39,644. The rules are expected to become effective in January, 90 days after Federal Register publication. Hunton Andrews said they will create uncertainty about the level of detail required for filings, including “descriptions of the ownership structure, transaction rationale and overlaps.” Paul Weiss said that based on the FTC announcement, the most significant increases in costs could be felt in “transactions with complex party or deal structures, those involving entities with many overlapping business operations or existing business relationships in the supply chain, or where the parties have a history of acquisitions in the same business lines.” The FTC said it will lift its suspension of early termination when the rules go into effect. The “temporary” suspension was implemented in February 2021 (see 2102040025 and 2203170004).

While fiber-to-the-home costs per home passed and connection costs are generally high in North America, the lack of commercial investment in FTTH broadband infrastructure is "somewhat surprising," the World Broadband Association said Tuesday in its North America broadband investment guidebook. It said the viability of investment in North American broadband infrastructure could improve if operators enhanced the attractiveness of their retail offering. In addition, the importance of having a trained fiber workforce to reduce deployment costs and speed up time to market needs attention, the guidebook said. It noted the high demand for government subsidization of retail broadband plans and advised that broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program bidders should carefully consider trade-offs in the scoring criteria. Moreover, harmonization between government programs for broadband supply and demand is needed, as there's no value in subsidizing good-quality broadband infrastructure if subscription take-up is low.

Utah is appealing a preliminary injunction against the state’s social media age-verification law, Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) said in a Thursday filing with the U.S. District Court of Utah (docket 2:23-cv-00911). NetChoice won an injunction against SB-194 in September on First Amendment grounds (see 2409110025). Reyes and Katherine Hass, the state's Department of Commerce Consumer Protection Division director, are appealing to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

It “doesn’t make sense” to break up Google because the company is facing its most intense competition, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said Thursday. However, he told CNBC Google should drop its exclusive contract with Apple and not self-preference its own products. One of Google’s AI competitors, ChatGPT, has more than 100 million users, he said: Google is “actually having the most competition today than ever before.” DOJ on Tuesday filed a proposed remedy framework in its antitrust lawsuit against the company, and said breaking up Google should be considered (see 2410090035).

The FTC investigated 70% of Hart-Scott-Rodino merger transactions in fiscal 2023, the agency said in its annual report with DOJ on Thursday. DOJ issued second requests, the mechanism used to initiate an investigation, in 30% of transactions in 2023. There were 1,723 total HSR transactions in 2023, 124 of which received FTC clearance. DOJ received clearance on 61 of the transactions. The FTC in fiscal 2022 issued second requests on 53.2% of transactions it reviewed, and DOJ initiated investigations in about 47% of its cases. During President Donald Trump’s last year in office, fiscal 2020, the FTC issued requests on 48% of transactions, and DOJ issued requests on 52% of its cases. There were 1,580 total transactions in 2020 and 3,029 in 2022. The commission voted 3-2 to issue the 2023 report, with Republicans Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson dissenting. Holyoak and Ferguson urged the two agencies to fix discrepancies between how the FTC and DOJ report certain figures, specifically how they measure litigation results.

FTC Chair Lina Khan “only attends official events at the request of members of Congress" and abides by “all the rules governing her role as chair,” an agency spokesperson said Wednesday (see 2410020046). House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., wrote Khan Tuesday saying his committee is expanding its investigation of FTC “politicization” under her leadership to also probe her participation in “campaign-season events with Democrat candidates” (see 2410080062). The agency spokesperson said members of Congress invite Khan to “official events so she can hear from their constituents, because every community has a stake in fair competition.”