The Case Against the Google-Doubleclick Merger

EPIC has filed a series of innovative complaints at the Federal Trade Commission concerning emerging privacy issues. In one case, EPIC challenged Microsoft's identity management service "Passport." The FTC sided with EPIC, issued a consent order, and Microsoft backed off Passport. In a second case against the databroker Choicepoint, EPIC helped the FTC obtain $15 m, the largest judgement in the Commission's history. In the most recent case, EPIC has challenged the proposed merger of Internet search giant Google and Internet advertiser Doubleclick, alleging that the merged entity would be under essentially no legal obligation to protect the personal information that it collects. EPIC has urged the FTC to block the deal or impose substantial privacy safeguards as a condition of the merger. Marc Rotenberg, the director of EPIC, who teaches privacy law at Georgetown, has authored more than two dozen amicus briefs on emerging civil liberties issues, and has testified before Congress on more than fifty occasions will discuss the theory and strategy of the case.