http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/business/federal-trade-commission-raises-its-voice-under-its-soft-spoken-chairwoman.html 2014-12-22 01:10:26 Federal Trade Commission Raises Its Voice Under Its Soft-Spoken Chairwoman Edith Ramirez’s tenure as leader of the commission has been marked by an effort to bring the regulator out of the shadows, focusing particular attention on digital privacy and transactions. === WASHINGTON — The New England Journal of Medicine is not a common venue for antitrust debates. But it was in that academic journal that Edith Ramirez, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, warned this month that mergers of physician practice groups could stifle competition. The essay was vintage Ramirez: precise, astute and quietly forceful, particularly when expounding on the commission’s authority. The essay was also the latest example of Ms. Ramirez flashing the agency’s regulatory teeth. “Extensive evidence that consolidation of health care providers leads to higher prices without corresponding improvements in quality,” she wrote, “supports the F.T.C.’s continued vigilance over these markets.” While public debate has raged in recent months over the Ms. Ramirez’s efforts could lead to more turf battles, including with the F.C.C. and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which see their mandates as covering much of the same enforcement territory. The agencies say publicly that they are working well together and just divvying up the spoils. Behind the scenes, though, more than a little tension has developed. The F.T.C. has Similarly, last week, the F.C.C. and the consumer bureau Ms. Ramirez, described by colleagues as a reserved yet diligent litigator, will be at the center of that turf battle, her calm demeanor masking an aggressive negotiator. “We are engaging in a conversation with folks in the industry, academics, technologists and consumer advocates so we can keep abreast of emerging challenges,” Ms. Ramirez said in a recent interview, one of the few she has granted since she became chairwoman in March 2013. “We’re making sure we are where consumers are, so we can have an impact.” In person, Ms. Ramirez, 46, is soft-spoken, and can sometimes be slightly stilted in addressing a large audience. At early public appearances after taking over as chairwoman, she was often whisked away by staff members, smiling nervously but refusing to answer questions from news media. A recent news conference that featured both Ms. Ramirez and Tom Wheeler, chairman of the F.C.C., was a study in contrasts. Mr. Wheeler’s remarks seemed entirely impromptu, with minimal looking at notes, while Ms. Ramirez read a prepared three-page statement. “She may be quiet but she’s extremely strategic and dedicated,” said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, an advocacy group. “She is very aware of the central role that consumer protection will play as the U.S. is transformed by the digital economy.” Ms. Ramirez grew up in Southern California, in one of a few nonwhite families in her small beach town of San Clemente. Her parents immigrated from Mexico and the family spoke Spanish at home. High expectations were the rule, she said in the interview, in her typically understated manner. Her parents, she said, “always wanted us to do our best, let’s say.” “At home, I was always conscious of having a culture different from mainstream culture,” she said. “I think it made me more conscious of others who might be outside the mainstream.” She thrived, however, at Harvard, earning a degree in history magna cum laude before entering law school, where she served on the staff of The Harvard Law Review with Barack Obama. She returned to California, clerking at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before beginning a career as an appellate and antitrust lawyer in Los Angeles. Since being appointed as one of five F.T.C. commissioners in 2010, she has frequently spoken about the particular importance for low-income families of consumer protection and competition. At a competition forum in the Dominican Republic in 2012, she noted that while the poor, like everyone else, benefited from competition, “the underprivileged may benefit even more because they spend a greater proportion of their income on basic goods and services.” As an example, she cites mobile phone service. Low-income consumers are far more likely than more affluent Americans to rely on cellphones for their only telephone connection. And in recent months, the F.T.C. has put a particularly strong focus on the mobile companies. In July, the F.T.C. sued T-Mobile, charging that it earned millions of dollars placing bogus charges on consumers’ bills for unwanted premium text-messaging services. On Friday, T-Mobile The evolution of digital services is one that holds both promise and peril for consumers, Ms. Ramirez said, from mobile phones that constantly track users’ whereabouts to the so-called Internet of Things, a world where most every home device and appliance will have some type of Internet-connected sensor. “Today’s currency is data,” Ms. Ramirez said. “We want to see all this innovation that is giving us these marvelous services. But in order to achieve what those types of services can offer us, we need to have consumer protections in place so consumers can feel confident when using those products.” Under Ms. Ramirez, the F.T.C. also has cracked down on companies that allowed minors to make in-app purchases without a parent’s permission. Apple agreed to refund $32.5 million and Google $19 million; Amazon is contesting similar F.T.C. charges. Still, Ms. Ramirez knows the uphill climb she faces to raise the commission’s profile. In her 2010 confirmation hearing, Ms. Ramirez said “most everyday Americans really don’t know much about what the F.T.C. does.” It is a problem, she said recently, that continued to be a work in progress. “One of our principal aims,” she said, “is to make sure we are active in areas where we can have the greatest impact for consumers, that we address the problems that affect them in their day-to-day lives.”