Neil Averitt

Neil Averitt writes a regular column of opinion and analysis for FTCWatch.

He attended Dartmouth College, Harvard College, the London School of Economics, and Harvard Law School, where he was Note Editor on the Law Review.

For 37 years he was on the staff of the Federal Trade Commission.  He worked as advisor to one of the Commissioners, assistant to the Chairman, and twice as acting head of the antitrust planning staff.  He was the principal author of the Commission’s 1980 policy statement on its consumer unfairness jurisdiction, and so-author of a pathbreaking law review article that urged merger enforcers to consider consequences for innovation and nonprice competition as well as short-term price effects.  He wrote an important brief to the Supreme Court in the 2015 case of North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners, which required state supervision of financially interested regulatory boards.