Federal Trade Commission chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras is not going to be stopped by a couple of privacy-loving non-profits. Majoras says she will not recuse herself from the Google-DoubleClick review, despite a petition from the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy.
The groups filed a petition earlier this week calling for her disqualification on the matter, citing a conflict of interest. (Majoras' husband works for law firm Jones Day, which represents DoubleClick in the antitrust case in Europe. Majoras also used to work at Jones Day.)
We don't claim to be attorneys, but Majoras' defense seems lame. Her argument is this: a)Jones Day has never represented DoubleClick in front of the FTC, and b) her husband is a fixed participation partner, and not an equity partner at Jones Day, so he doesn't have a financial interest in the outcome of the case.
This is what we don't get: Even if her husband's income is fixed, Jones Day still signs his paychecks. We're not really sure how he couldn't have a financial interest in the case. (Unless perhaps the Majorases are obscenely wealthy and paychecks are a trivial, silly matter?)
Now, you could (and many do) argue that the investigation is a sham, but if the FTC is going to go through with it, why not do it right?
Photo: Courtesy FTC
