By Harold Furchtgott-Roth,
President of Furchtgott-Roth Economic Enterprises, an economic consulting firm he founded in 2003. He is also a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and founder and director of its Center for the Economics of the Internet. Mr. Furchtgott-Roth served as a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission from 1997 to 2001, and prior to that he was chief economist for the House Committee on Commerce and a principal staff member on the Telecommunications Act of 1996. He is a member of WLF’s Legal Policy Advisory Board.
Summary
This Working Paper argues the following:
- The FCC has no statutory authority to review mergers.
- The FCC merger review process is only partly public.
- Injured parties have few if any practical means to dispute FCC merger reviews.
- Even if the FCC possessed statutory authority to review mergers, its review of mergers is an inefficient use of government resources.
- Even if FCC merger review were an efficient use of government resources, such review leads to market confusion and inefficient economic outcomes.
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