FTC Lina Khan pursues antitrust plans despite GOP opposition

Republican lawmakers have been vehemently critical of the Biden administration for years The regulator and its diverse leader, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, are no exception.

Partisan, cross-agency scrutiny is routine, amid criticism of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg supervision Southwest airline crisis appeal to Republicans Deprivation of power The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, headed by Commissioner Rohit Chopra.

But Khan, 34, the only Asian woman to lead the FTC and the first person of color to lead the commission in five years, finds herself at the center of a contentious tug-of-war between business and government over social media takeovers and an era demanding more worker autonomy.

The London-born Pakistani parent said she was “treated as a potential terrorist” after she and her family moved to the US after the September 11 attacks. Khan is only 11 years old.

But the discrimination didn’t stop Khan. Her meteoric rise in the field of antitrust began when she was a student at Yale Law School, her 2017 thesis “Amazon’antitrust paradox“resulting in more review e-commerce giant.

She developed her passion for antitrust while working at the Open Markets Initiative, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that studies the impact of monopolies on economic competition and growth, according to a 2021 report. contour in The New Yorker.

shortly after winning Senate confirmation That year, Khan Commitment Uphold the FTC’s mission to “preserve fair competition and protect consumers, workers, and honest businesses from unfair (and) deceptive practices.”Khan recently told a House committee that she intends to complete her termend next year, despite speculation she will leave the agency at the end of the year She took a two-year sabbatical at Columbia Law School, where she was an associate professor, and gave birth to her first child in January.

Khan’s massive oversight program and focus as she makes history leading the agency market fair competition painted push back From Republican leaders who denounced their “politicization.” Her ambitions for the agency even sparked resistance within the agency. Two Republican commissioners, Kristen Wilson and Noah Joshua PhillipsResigned under Khan, leaving a bipartisan committee that typically only has Democratic representatives.

Khan’s wide-ranging role in investigating Twitter’s privacy practices, blocking non-compete contracts and tackling President Joe Biden’s campaign against junk fees makes her a unique target.

She is “the first FTC chair in a long time to attempt to reestablish the centrality of market structures in politics,” said Matt Stoller, research director of the American Economic Freedom Project and a close associate of Khan. Stoller said the FTC chairman’s status as “an intruder in this insular world” of antitrust has fueled resentment.

“Lena just happened to be famous because of some of the big fellowships she got before she became chair of the FTC,” he said. “So she was a particularly compelling target.”

Strong opposition to Khan’s antitrust platform has come from the Republican caucus in Congress — even as many Republican lawmakers support antitrust policies or bash Big Tech.

Shortly after Khan’s appointment, Republican Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Mike Lee of Utah and Republican Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado and Jim Jordan of Ohio named the agency for The Antitrust Enforcement Regime in the United States” Grassley critical The FTC “advances aggressive antitrust policy” in a September memo.

Khan defended her position, telling CNBC on May 10 that the FTC enforces antitrust laws passed by Congress.

“I think we’ve seen time and time again that what’s best for consumers, what’s best for innovation, what’s best for ensuring that America leads, is enforcement of antitrust laws,” she said.

Democrats including Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, House Judiciary Committee member and Senator Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota, applauded Khan’s dedication her policy vision. Klobuchar, an antitrust hawk on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Applaud FTC Chairman’s Commitment to “strengthen competition policy and antitrust”.

A flurry of FTC proposals under Khan has drawn sharp attacks from Republicans, especially the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee.panel Moved by the move to break up the Khan After the party gained control of the House of Representatives in January.

Khan is now defending a range of plans against a Republican backlash. That’s the ambitious agenda of the FTC Chairman’s nearly two-year tenure at the FTC.

Khan is continuing the FTC’s multiyear investigation into Twitter’s data privacy practices — which has put her at odds with one of the world’s wealthiest men and the new Republican House majority.The massive layoffs came within a month of Elon Musk taking over the platform in October It drew the attention of the FTC as critical security and privacy personnel were among the casualties.

Musk’s unusual ask to meet khan He was rejected in person in January, The New York Times reported. According to the Times report, Khan told Twitter’s lawyers that she would not consider meeting with Musk until the company complied with investigators’ information requests.

Many Republicans have defended the company amid the ongoing FTC investigation, with some cheering Musk’s ownership group for taking Twitter private. The House Judiciary Committee, led by Jordan, The agency was subpoenaed last month for documents related to a privacy probe after Musk bought the company.

“Of course, the FTC should be mindful of the fact that the Republican Party is now making a political effort against them,” Jon Schwepp, policy director for the Project on American Principles, a conservative group, told CNBC.

Some in the Republican Party praise Musk’s acquisition for loosening content moderation, Jordan tweet“Free speech is making a comeback.” Twitter is also conspicuously absent from the top 5 CEOs of big tech companies jordan summoned in february On what he called “reports of federal collusion with big tech companies to suppress free speech.”

“Republicans, as we all know, see Twitter as a town square, and they don’t want to see anything get in the way of (Musk’s) approach,” said Mokel, a human resources lecturer at the University of New Haven in Connecticut.

The FTC proposed banning non-compete clauses in January — perhaps the most controversial policy under Khan’s leadership to date.Jordan and other Republican House members criticized the plan as a “Seize power.”

Khan cited the ban in 2021 Priority Policy Listsaying that employer-mandated provisions “prevent workers from freely changing jobs, deprive them of higher wages and better working conditions, and deprive businesses of the talent pool they need to build and expand.” The FTC estimates that if the non-compete is lifted , wages would increase by $300 billion a year.

Meanwhile, Jordan and other Republicans say Khan lack of authority Implement the ban.

in her objection Against non-compete plan, Trump appoints Wilson, who papa sweat In an op-ed since she left the commissioner, she called the proposal a “radical departure from centuries of legal precedent.”

Echoing some in the Republican Party, Leslie Overton, a legal partner at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP, told CNBC that Democratic FTC commissioners “assert their ability to make rules based on their broad interpretation of Section 5 of the FTC Act,” They say it applies to “unfair methods of competition” and not necessarily a violation of antitrust laws.

Public Comment Window for Non-Competition Proposals Closed April 19Khan said the agency was reviewing more than 26,000 comments.

Biden administration takes aim at so-called junk fees: Hidden costs of impact Ticketing for concerts, hotel rooms, and other forms of entertainment. The administration has proposed the Garbage Fee Prevention Act, which, if passed, would give the FTC and Khan broad enforcement powers.

The Federal Trade Commission has also said It is considering a proposed rule to crack down on waste charges.

in a outright dissent For the October announcement, Wilson argued that the FTC does not have jurisdiction over the departments, saying the proposal “is not bound by the firm foundations of FTC enforcement.”“ And said it “relyed on flawed assumptions and vague definitions; ignored the impact on competition; and diverted scarce agency resources from vital enforcement efforts.”

But an FTC spokesman said Khan’s agency has jurisdiction over all charges except for banks and airlines. Garbage fees are also a core component of the FTC’s consumer protection mission, agency president says.

But Schweppe said any strategy against such populist proposals is a “political loser”.

Khan has said she will continue to advance the FTC’s antitrust standards in the coming months and place a greater emphasis on competition.

Emergence of AI technologies such as ChatGPT and their potential for consumers Abuse, was Khan’s next target.She said the FTC will also Efforts to ensure that up-and-coming AI companies can compete with the tech giants include Google, amazon and apple.