Has the FTC Been Overreaching? The Balance Between AI Regulation and Innovation
At CES 2025, an insightful panel featuring Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Melissa Holyoak, along with former FTC Commissioners Christine Wilson and Julie Brill, tackled the evolving regulatory landscape for artificial intelligence (AI). They examined the FTC’s role in AI oversight, particularly through the unfair and deceptive acts or practices (UDAP) of half of its authority (the other half is unfair methods of competition or UMC). While the agency plays a crucial role in protecting consumers [...]
The AI Revolution is Far From Over: Three Key Observations on DeepSeek’s Impact
The AI industry is often called “fast-moving,” but rarely has it moved as fast as it did last week. Over the previous weekend, Chinese startup DeepSeek released an AI assistant app powered by its new R1 model that quickly overtook ChatGPT atop the App Store charts. Thanks to efficiencies in DeepSeek’s training process, it appears that R1 can achieve comparable performance to the current market leaders at a fraction of the up-front cost. And thanks to DeepSeek’s decision to [...]
More Than a Leg: The True Costs of Chair Khan’s White Whale Hunt
Authors both in support of and opposed to outgoing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan’s aggressive antitrust agenda often liken her pursuit of Amazon to Captain Ahab’s obsession with the infamous white whale in Moby Dick. For those who have not followed the saga, it may seem like the pundits are leaning too heavily on a literary crutch, but in truth, the analogy is hard to avoid. Like a polished whalebone prosthetic attached below the knee, it just [...]
DoJ’s Google Search Remedies: Even Worse than DMA?
Late last year, we observed that the Department of Justice’s (DoJ’s) proposed remedies in its lawsuit targeting Google search went much further than necessary. We pointed out that if adopted by the Court, they would amount to a significant intervention into a number of markets that ACT | The App Association members generally need to remain competitive, rather than cast under the long shadow of sweeping court remedies. Now, as the Trump Administration and the 119th Congress leave the [...]
Event Recap: Tech on Ice
After a busy 2024 filled with global events and member activations, ACT | The App Association kicked off 2025 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas - one of the largest trade shows for technology and startups in the world. Recognizing the global reach of events like CES, we hosted Tech on Ice, a networking event at the Las Vegas Golden Knights hockey game that brought together innovators, investors, and policymakers from around the globe. A Global [...]
As Rubber Meets Road for DMA, Commission Wants Nobody at the Wheel
Last month, the European Commission issued “preliminary findings” regarding Apple’s iOS operating system, publishing a set of sweeping proposed measures for Apple to fully comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The proposed measures primarily implement Article 6(7)’s interoperability mandate, applying the provision inflexibly to 11 iOS features, mandating that Apple make each of them just as available to third-party developers as they are to Apple itself. Observers who thought the Commission would respect the technical realities of making [...]