FTC Head Pushes Back on Calls to Expand Antitrust Law

By Alexei Alexis, Bloomberg BNA

Acting Federal Trade Commission Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen is emerging as a vocal defender of existing U.S. antitrust laws amid calls for sweeping changes to rein in dominant technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google.

Ohlhausen is delivering speeches this week that reinforce the government’s decades-old antitrust enforcement approach, which focuses strictly on markets and prices. She is pushing back against public pressure to stop companies from becoming too powerful or to address social problems like wage stagnation.

When it comes to technology, Ohlhausen is a fierce defender of innovators’ rights to alter ...