FCC Chairman Pai: Regulators must weigh Big Tech and market

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said that competition regulators should weigh the increased dominance of Google and Facebook over the digital ad market. “We do want to make sure that there is a competitive marketplace, so that involves taking a holistic view of what the market structure is,” Chairman Pai said, noting his comments were not about a specific transaction. “What does that mean for the internet economy?” While Chairman Pai and the FCC didn’t vet the AT&T-Time Warner deal, these comments line up with the telecom giant’s arguments in its court victory over the Justice Department. Pai’s comments may indicate a broader sympathy with the telecom industry’s arguments that consolidation is the cure, at least in part, to their struggles to compete with Silicon Valley. This is particularly noteworthy as more media and telecom companies explore new vertical integration deals as a result of the court’s approval of AT&T’s merger.