Dec 12, 2007 3:56 pm US/Pacific
FTC Chair Asked To Recuse Herself In Google Case
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
Two consumer groups on Wednesday asked the chair of the
Federal Trade Commission to remove herself from the agency's antitrust review
of Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick because her husband works
at the law firm representing DoubleClick.
Deborah Platt Majoras, FTC chairwoman, is married to John
M. Majoras, a partner at the Jones Day
law firm and who specializes in antitrust, the groups said in a petition to the
agency. Deborah Majoras was a partner at the firm before leaving to take the
FTC position.
"The chairman is reviewing the petition with
the chief ethics officer," Claudia Bourne Farrell, an FTC spokeswoman, said. "We
only learned yesterday that Jones Day is representing DoubleClick before the
European Commission, not the Federal Trade Commission. Jones Day has not appeared before the FTC in
this matter."
Jones Day's Web site says that it is
representing DoubleClick, an online advertising services firm, "on the
international and U.S.
antitrust and competition law aspects" of the deal, the groups' petition said.
The Electronic
Privacy Information
Center and the Center for
Digital Democracy, which have criticized the deal on privacy grounds, said in
their petition that they discovered the relationship on Dec. 10. It "calls into
question the ability of the commission to render decisions that are fair and
just," the petition added.
"This should have been part of the record from
Day One," Jeff Chester, executive director of CDD, said.
Majoras has recused herself in other cases when
Jones Day has been involved, the petition claimed.
The FTC decision on the acquisition by the
world's largest Internet search engine company had been expected as early as
next week.
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