As Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan and Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter continue racking up wins by enacting the Biden-Harris administration’s historic competition agenda, public support for their work to break up monopolies is sky-high. And it’s not just Democratic voters backing the pair of antitrust enforcers; top lawmakers are getting in on the act to back Khan and Kanter in the face of attacks from Big Tech and companies regulated by the DOJ and the FTC. Read more about their bold leadership and work to protect consumers, increase competition, and hold corporate price gougers accountable:
Bloomberg – Biden’s Antitrust Cop Got a Big Win. Will It Be His Last? (Leah Nylen and Sara Forden, 9/30/24)
- “A federal judge in Washington had ruled that Alphabet Inc.’s Google had illegally monopolized the market for online search and search advertising … the US’s most significant victory in a monopoly case since its initial triumph over Microsoft Corp. more than two decades ago.”
- “For Kanter, it was a moment to savor — a crowning achievement for an antitrust revival that has sought to show that laws first enacted to rein in 19th century business titans apply to 21st century technology juggernauts.”
- “Clearly his goal and his focus has been on reversing what we did in the 1980s,” said [a Reagan DOJ antitrust chief], who added: “Antitrust does have broad sweeps of the pendulum, and I think the pendulum has swung toward more aggressive enforcement,” calling Kanter’s victory in the Google case “a hallmark success.”
- “Whatever happens in November, some observers say Kanter’s approach to fighting alleged monopolies has permanently changed the landscape.”
NYT – Interview with Lina Khan (Talmon Joseph Smith, 9/28/24)
- “I think now, there is much more of a visceral understanding of not just what antitrust is about, but how it connects to major problems and challenges for people’s livelihoods,” said Khan.
- “Consumer watchdogs and some conservatives have cheered on Ms. Khan, defending her populist moves, like the agency’s recent warning to makers of inhalers that their aggressive use of patent loopholes may violate federal law.”
- “We’ve actually racked up a lot of wins. We won the government’s first litigated victory in a vertical merger case in over 50 years,” added Khan.
- “On the consumer protection side, we’ve brought a case against a data broker claiming that their collection of everybody’s geolocation data, which is making that very easily available on the market, is injuring people’s privacy. And the court, for the first time ever, said that the FTC Act protects against those types of invasions of privacy.”
Rolling Stone – ‘It Is Time to Break It Up’: Inside the DOJ’s Blockbuster Lawsuit Against Live Nation (Ethan Millman, 9/30/24)
- “Under Kanter, the antitrust team has brought a verve not seen in the division in years. The bespectacled, Queens-born attorney has a gravitational pull in his office as a high-energy leader who seldom sits still.”
- “‘The power that big companies have can rival governments if not exceed them. That’s not freedom, that’s not opportunity,’ Kanter said. ‘If you can’t build a business and succeed on your own merits … that’s not a market-based economy, that’s not capitalism. That’s exploitation.’”
- “Kanter’s antitrust division has taken on giants like Apple and Google — winning a landmark case against the latter over its internet-search dominance — but he says nothing they’ve done has elicited a reaction among consumers and lawmakers alike quite like (the DOJ’s suit against Live Nation-Ticketmaster).”
- “‘When we talk to family farmers concerned about meat-packers and processors, we hear the same sort of urgency. Same with health care,’Kanter tells Rolling Stone. ‘But people love music, and a monopolist is getting in the way of their ability to access it and making their lives more expensive.’”
WIRED – As FTC Chair Lina Khan’s Term Expires, Democrats Are Torn Between Donors and Their Base (Dell Cameron, 9/27/24)
- “Roughly 80 percent of Democrats feel that the government should be doing more to take on corporate monopolies, compared to only 3 percent who say it should be doing less, according to new polling. Nearly 90 percent of Democrats, meanwhile, feel that lobbyists and corporate executives hold too much power over the government.”
- “Due perhaps in part to polling like this, there are strong indications that the billionaires are wasting their breath when it comes to the ousting of Khan. Last month, the Democratic Party adopted a platform that celebrated Khan’s crackdown on ‘corporate greed.’”
- “Saying US companies ‘can and should do more’ to respect their customers’ privacy, the FTC adds that it is incumbent on Congress to pass ‘comprehensive federal privacy legislation’ soon. Efforts at doing so, however, remain long mired in disagreement among lawmakers.”
- “At least under Khan, the FTC has made aggressive strides in picking up Congress’ slack.”
HuffPost – Top Democrat Backs Lina Khan As Donors Seek Her Ouster (Daniel Marans, 9/26/24)
- “Clyburn spoke to HuffPost in a joint interview with Khan to tout the FTC’s $48 million settlement this week with Invitation Homes, a corporate landlord that the FTC accused of bilking renters for millions of dollars in junk fees, and hiding those fees through false advertising.”
- “Clyburn’s endorsement is a critical vote of confidence for Khan, whose aggressive approach to enforcement marks a break with more accommodating predecessors.”
- “The support of Clyburn, the personification of the moderate Democratic establishment, is a major coup for Khan.”
- “I think she’s doing a good job … And I think that the [FTC chair] has shown competence and compassion,” he said.
Last week, The Tech Oversight Project released a survey from Public Policy Polling (PPP) showing broad national public support for Khan’s and Kanter’s leadership among Democrats, with 88% supporting Chair Khan and AAG Kanter’s record of holding price gougers and monopolies accountable. Notably, both enforcers received intense levels of support from respondents – with 80% and 77% of respondents saying they strongly supported Kanter and Khan’s records, respectively.