How A TikTok Purchase Could Raise Antitrust Issues: Expert Discusses

5 months ago

Sharis Pozen, regional managing partner - Americas at Clifford Chance, joined Liane Jackson on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss TikTok and

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Transcript

00:00 I'm Leanne Jackson, senior law editor at Forbes.

00:03 And today I am joined by Sherris Posen.

00:05 She is managing partner of the Americas at Clifford Chance,

00:09 specializing in antitrust law.

00:11 She's also a former acting assistant attorney

00:13 general at the DOJ.

00:15 And she represents TikTok currently in Antitrust Matters

00:20 along with other attorneys at her firm.

00:22 So I'm happy to have her join us to discuss the ultimatum

00:26 that TikTok has been given.

00:28 The bill signed by President Biden that lets TikTok know

00:32 their choices are either to find a US buyer

00:35 or be banned in the United States

00:38 to the chagrin of many of its producers,

00:42 of course, users, millions and millions of people.

00:45 Is it billions, Sherris?

00:46 I think potentially they use TikTok across the world,

00:48 but of course in the United States,

00:49 the effects are far reaching.

00:51 And for a lot of people who are fans of TikTok,

00:54 they would describe it as catastrophic.

00:56 Can you talk a little bit about how this could play out,

01:01 what TikTok's options are now?

01:04 Well, thank you so much, Ileane, and pleasure to be here.

01:08 Interestingly, the idea that someone could buy TikTok

01:12 and not have antitrust issues is sort of first and foremost

01:16 on my mind as an antitrust practitioner,

01:19 who can actually buy TikTok and carry it forward?

01:22 That would be a US company.

01:24 So to some extent, some consider it essentially a ban

01:28 on this company that is generating a lot of ad revenue

01:32 and giving a lot of competition and innovation

01:34 to the marketplace.

01:36 Yeah, there's so many people who say that TikTok

01:37 is one of the means that they,

01:39 at least a lot of the producers that are against this ban

01:42 say that this is a way of making money.

01:45 A lot of people are social media influencers.

01:47 That's a whole category of profession these days,

01:50 and TikTok is integral to that.

01:52 So it's interesting that you say

01:53 that it's kind of a lose-lose situation

01:56 because other companies in a position to purchase TikTok

01:59 might have antitrust issues.

02:02 However, ByteDance, the owner of TikTok,

02:05 says they are going to fight this.

02:07 And given the courts,

02:10 the way the courts are ruling on antitrust issues

02:13 or on any issues that, legal issues,

02:16 that ByteDance is going to be appealing,

02:18 there's constitutionality issues,

02:19 I think there's First Amendment.

02:20 How do you think this could play out in the courts

02:23 once ByteDance does file a complaint?

02:24 It sounds like that will be soon.

02:27 Yeah, I think, at least from all press reports,

02:30 they have said that they will challenge this in the courts.

02:34 And the basis of that challenge, I don't know.

02:35 I'm not involved in that challenge.

02:38 Who knows?

02:39 It could be takings, constitutionality otherwise.

02:43 And at essence here is this balance, right?

02:48 The surveillance and other national security issues

02:51 regarding China have been around for decades.

02:55 When I was at the Department of Justice,

02:57 there was a heightened sensitivity to that as well.

03:01 My concern is again about competition and innovation

03:04 because the idea that competitors could sort of

03:09 take advantage of this current environment around TikTok

03:13 and really advocate for its ban or its sale,

03:17 or essentially its banning TikTok,

03:21 as you said, millions of dollars in advertising revenue,

03:24 which are now being diverted to huge competitors

03:27 that are being challenged as monopolists in the courts

03:29 by the US antitrust agencies today.

03:32 And also this industry, you see DIY people

03:37 making a lot of their income by operating on TikTok.

03:41 And so that will all be gone.

03:43 That's a lot of revenue and I guess people's wealth

03:49 I guess people's wherewithal is their income,

How A TikTok Purchase Could Raise Antitrust Issues: Expert Discusses

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