Our podcasts bring together some of the top minds at Davis Polk to illuminate and explore the big issues of the day. These rich discussions may include professionals from a number of the firm’s diverse practices, as well as special guests.

The FTC Hearings series features commentary on these historic hearings to help the public stay informed and aware of the potential impact to their business and daily lives. Our speakers will cover key topics including: privacy and big data; mergers and acquisitions, buyer power and antitrust; algorithmic decision-making and artificial intelligence; and the impact of new technologies on competition, innovation and consumer rights.

Join Davis Polk as we follow the highly anticipated FTC Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century.

These broad hearings, the first in nearly 25 years, will be critical to agency policy and enforcement priorities moving forward, and represent an opportunity for early insight into the newly appointed Commissioners’ thinking on key issues to the business community and the public, with significant implications for antitrust, M&A, privacy and data security.

Episode 1: Opening Day on Competition and Consumer Protection

Eileen Harrington, former Deputy Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection and a long time FTC enforcement official, sits down with Davis Polk partner and former Chairman of the FTC Jon Leibowitz and Davis Polk partners Avi Gesser and Ronan Harty to discuss:

• why the Commission is holding these hearings
• whether the Commission will continue its tradition of bipartisan collaboration
• key issues to watch in the competition, consumer protection and data privacy space
• what we may expect to develop out of these hearings

Episode 2: The New “Populist” Movement in Antitrust: Its Potential Impact on Deals

Davis Polk partner and former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz is joined by Louis Goldberg, the co-head of Davis Polk’s Mergers and Acquisitions Group, and Arthur Burke, a litigation partner at the firm with extensive antitrust experience, to discuss the emerging “populist antitrust” movement. This new approach would put a significantly increased burden on merging parties and allegedly dominant firms, and has begun to gain support from prominent figures on both the left and the right. Our panel explores how a new antitrust standard might affect M&A, including:

• increased uncertainty for buyers and sellers
• potential changes in deal terms 
• a possible impact on funding and cash-out options for startups

EPISODE 3: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED SO FAR?

David Vladeck, Professor at the Georgetown Law Center and former Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, sits down with Davis Polk partner and former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz and Davis Polk partners Avi Gesser and Ronan Harty, to discuss the first nine hearings and what to look for in 2019, including:

• The outlook for investigations and enforcement actions by the FTC
• Expected vertical-merger guidelines and increased concerns about acquisitions by dominant companies of nascent disrupters
• The momentum for privacy legislation and ways to balance the benefits and risks of Big Data  

Episode 4: Key Takeaways From the FTC Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection

The Federal Trade Commission is wrapping up its extensive series of Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century. To discuss key takeaways, Davis Polk partner and former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz sits down with partners Avi Gesser and Ronan Harty and longtime FTC official Eileen Harrington.

Our panel considers the potential impact of the hearings on FTC policy and what companies need to know in areas including:

• Consumer privacy and cybersecurity issues associated with new technologies and big data
• Prospective – and possibly retrospective – reviews of technology-industry combinations, and the agency’s new Technology Task Force
• Indications of areas of agreement and disagreement among the FTC commissioners, all of whom are new to the role