On Tuesday, October 19, from 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET, as part of NSI’s Tech Innovation and American National Security project, NSI hosted the third event of a four-part series examining the national security implications of antitrust challenges at home and abroad.
Background: Adversarial nation-state governments, such as China’s, are known to bolster their own economy through government financing of certain private sector industries, including companies in the tech industry, in order to effectuate national goals, including national security related goals. In particular, while China has encouraged rapid growth in its domestic tech sector in a bid to challenge its biggest economic competitor—the United States—it has at times, placed a heavy regulatory hand on both foreign and domestic tech companies, including using the levers of antitrust policy at home. China’s antitrust challenges are seen by many to have little to do with protecting competition; rather, Beijing’s antitrust and other policies appear to punish companies and executives that don’t adhere to the party line. This panel will look at the ways in which China and other adversarial nations both encourage and discourage foreign and domestic tech competition and how such nations choose its antitrust targets.
The National Security Implications of Antitrust Home and Abroad Series Overview: Throughout much of the 20th century, the United States has led the world in technological innovation – with this innovation driving sustained economic growth and underpinning U.S. global military capabilities. However, today, U.S. tech companies face antitrust challenges at home and abroad. This four-event series will provide an overview of domestic and international antitrust laws and how these regulations and legal challenges impact U.S. and foreign tech companies, and explore how notwithstanding these antitrust challenges, the U.S. should position itself to preserve its preeminent role in leading technological innovation and to protect vital U.S. security interests. You can find more information about the Antitrust series here.
Our series continues with:
- National Security Implications of Antitrust: America’s The Homefront – December 2021
This event features:
Matt Perault is a professor of the practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Information & Library Science. He previously led the Center on Science & Technology Policy at Duke University and was a professor of the practice at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Matt also previously worked at Facebook, where he was a director on the public policy team and the head of the global policy development team. He covered issues ranging from antitrust to law enforcement to human rights and oversaw the company’s policy work on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality. In July 2019, he testified in Congress on the competitiveness of the technology sector.
Matt has also held roles as Counsel at the Congressional Oversight Panel, a consultant at the World Bank, and served as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Alex Petros is a Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge, where he focuses on digital platform competition issues. His portfolio focuses on digital platform competition issues, including interoperability, non-discrimination, and a new digital regulator. He has written several blogs on a variety of topics including acquisitions during the pandemic, food delivery, EU regulations, and music mergers. Prior to joining Public Knowledge, Alex worked in public service, serving Amy Klobuchar, Senator Richard Blumenthal, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Senator Joe Donnelly.
Maureen Ohlhausen chairs the Baker Botts Global Antitrust and Competition practice, where her work focuses on antitrust, privacy and data security, and consumer protection investigations and litigation both in the U.S. and abroad. She holds extensive experience both nationally and globally on antitrust and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-related matters. She is known for her relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad, with a particular emphasis on Europe and China.
Maureen most recently led the FTC as Acting Chairman and Commissioner where she directed all aspects of the FTC’s antitrust work, including merger review and conduct enforcement, and steered all FTC consumer protection enforcement, with a particular emphasis on privacy and technology issues. She regularly led the U.S. delegation at international antitrust and data privacy meetings and is the only FTC Commissioner to have received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement award in recognition of her knowledge of and contributions to the Commission.
View the previous events of our Antitrust series:
- National Security Implications of Antitrust: An Introduction – August 2021
- National Security Implications of Antitrust: America’s Allies – September 2021