Free State: FCC Must Avoid Big is Bad Approach To Comcast/TWC

Seth Cooper, a senior adjunct fellow at the Free State Foundation, has some suggestions for how the Federal Communications Commission should, and should not, vet the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger if it is to conduct a consumer-focused and "principled" review and that includes not rejecting it on the "big is bad" theory.

In a new paper for the free market think tank, Cooper concedes it is possible that an economic examination of deal could produce anticompetitive concerns, but there needs to be "unmistakable" evidence.

The FCC's due diligence in that examination of the deal, Cooper says, must "disregard pleas for it to reject Comcast/TWC out of hand, based on appeals to emotional incredulity or 'big is bad' sloganeering; Stand firm against calls that, under the guise of protecting consumers, the agency impose conditions in order to protect market rivals...; reject dragging out its review process...; and avoid the imposition of any conditions on the merger unrelated to demonstrable concerns over market power and anticompetitive conduct."