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President Joe Biden chose a lawyer and frequent criticism of the parent company of Google Alphabet for leading the antitrust division of the United States Department of Justice, the White House ad Tuesday. If approved, Kanter would join the strong legal team in the Biden administration which is poised to fight the enormous market power of Silicon Valley.
As the head of the DOJ’s antitrust division, Kanter would oversee the department’s antitrust prosecutions and would have the power to help block mergers deemed anti-competitive. This would include a case where the DOJ brought against Google in October on its dominance in the digital advertising market, as well as a probe in the policies of the Apple App Store.
While Congress remains fiercely partisan, Kanter’s appointment would be seen as a wise move, as he is seen as a prefer among progressives and some conservatives who think the tech giants have amassed too much power.
“Jonathan Kanter is a distinguished antitrust lawyer with over 20 years of experience,” the White House said in a press release. “Throughout his career, Kanter has also been a leading lawyer and expert in efforts to promote strong and meaningful antitrust and competition policy. “
Kanter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kanter’s appointment completes the list of top antitrust officials in the Biden administration. Chief among them is Federal Trade Commission President Lina Khan, a professor at Columbia Law School who, before joining the FTC, criticized Amazon for what it considered anti-competitive practices. His earlier work prompted both Amazon and Facebook to demand that it recuse itself from any matter involving one or the other of the companies on the grounds that it is biased against them. A third figure in the Biden administration, Tim Wu, who also worked as a law professor at Columbia and is known as Big Tech Critic – currently serves as Special Assistant to the President overseeing technology and competition policy at the National Economic Council.
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Previously Co-President of Antitrust Practices at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, one of the largest law firms in the United States, Kanter recently co-founded his own firm, the Kanter Law Group, specializing in antitrust cases. According to Politics, Kanter previously represented companies seeking to bring antitrust lawsuits against Google, including Yelp and Microsoft. The choice represents a stark contrast to Eat Delrahim—The Trump administration’s selection for the post in 2017 — who worked in private law to defend monopolies against antitrust actions before joining the DOJ.
In addition to appointing Big Tech critics to key positions in his administration, Biden recently signed a radical executive decree which directly targets large tech companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google. From 72 initiatives set out in the executive decree are guidelines for reigning in data collection, which serves as a cornerstone for many large technology companies; extend the right of reparation for the purchase of electronics by Americans; limit price abuse by Internet service providers, and restoration of Federal Communications Commission policies protecting net neutrality – a term, by the way, Wu coined.
“Let’s be clear: capitalism without competition is not capitalism. It’s exploitation, ”Biden said earlier this month when announcing the executive order. “Without healthy competition, the big players can change and charge what they want and treat you the way they want. And for too many Americans, that means accepting a bad deal for things you can’t live without. So we know we have a problem, a major problem. But we also have an incredible opportunity.
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