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Lina Khan, antitrust expert, law professor at Columbia and thorn in the side of Big Tech, is gaining ground as a candidate for one of the Federal Trade Commission commissioner posts under President Joe Biden, three sources close discussions told Recode this week.
Khan would likely occupy the commissioner seat currently held by Rohit Chopra, a Democrat Biden has asked to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Chopra has advocated for Khan’s appointment, the sources said, with someone familiar with the proceedings calling her the current “leader”. Khan was an FTC lawyer in Chopra’s office in 2018 and CFPB as a summer partner while Chopra worked there.
Khan and Chopra did not respond to messages seeking comment. A White House spokesperson declined to comment. The Capitol Forum first reported on Khan’s pull.
The FTC plays a key role in investigating companies’ business practices to preserve competition by enforcing federal antitrust laws and preventing harm to consumers. The agency also reviews major business acquisitions and mergers in an effort to keep the industry competitive, and it can sue companies and impose penalties for violating federal laws. For example, last year the FTC separately sued the companies that owned the Gillette and Schick razor brands, respectively, to prevent them from acquiring or merging with emerging competitors.
The FTC is run by five commissioners, but Biden has two roles to fill with the departure of Chopra and current Republican FTC Chairman Joe Simons recently announced his resignation. When these two positions are filled, Democrats will have a 3-2 majority at the top of the committee and may decide to sue or agree to settlements with companies suspected of having violated antitrust laws.
If Khan is appointed and then confirmed by the Senate, it would deal a blow to the Big Four tech companies – Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple – which are trying to prevent the government from curbing their unparalleled economic and societal power. Khan played a pivotal role as legal advisor to the House Antitrust Subcommittee’s 16-month investigation into tech giants, and in producing the 400-page House Democratic report which alleged that all the tech giants were engaging in anti-competitive practices and needed to be brought under control.
Khan burst into antitrust circles in 2017 when she wrote a legal article titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” which spread widely among supporters and critics. He stressed the need to strengthen the enforcement of antitrust laws and argued that the current antitrust doctrine is not suited to taming internet giants like Amazon. Over the past few decades, most of the US antitrust authorities have promoted business practices that keep consumer prices low; companies like Amazon, with its low prices, or Google and Facebook with their “free” services, have until recently avoided scrutiny.
Google is already facing three antitrust lawsuits filed late last year by the Justice Department and attorneys general in dozens of states. And the FTC and other state attorneys general have filed antitrust lawsuits against Facebook calling on the company to unwind its Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions. Recode previously reported that the Federal Trade Commission is also continuing to probe various Amazon business practices to determine if Jeff Bezos’ company is in violation of antitrust laws.
While the worldview of an FTC commissioner alone won’t directly lead the commission to take action against tech giants it otherwise wouldn’t have, Khan’s appointment could indicate that the Biden administration is prepared to take a tougher stance against Big Tech than the Obama administration. was. Progressives in favor of increased regulation of Big Tech have been concerned about reports that Biden is considering two officials – who have previously advised tech giants – for the lead antitrust role at the Department of Justice, which may also sue companies for violating antitrust laws.
It remains to be seen whether Biden’s antitrust appointments to the DOJ and FTC will end up being a patchwork of officials with differing views on the scale of a business consolidation problem in tech and beyond, or whether they will be aligned with the belief that the power and business practices of these giants also pose a threat to the economy and consumers. Either way, it’s hard to think of a date that would worry tech conglomerates more than Khan’s, both because of his expertise in examining their practices and the huge role his writings have. and his lawyers have already played to influence lawmakers’ view of the technical Big Poses threat.
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