Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Hahn has a chance to make her way down her list of high-tech tasks almost a year after her term, now with a democratic majority.
News: The Senate voted 51-50 on Wednesday afternoon – with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie – to confirm FTC privacy expert Alvaro Bedoya.
Background: Last year, progressives welcomed the appointment by President Biden of Khan, a prominent critic of Amazon’s market power, to run the agency, but its ability to make radical changes or enforcement action has been limited so far.
The majority of Democrats in the agency of five now opens the door to Khan’s agenda, which is expected to include:
1. New rules on confidentiality and competition. Biden called on the Federal Trade Commission to establish data and surveillance rules, as well as rules banning unfair competition methods in online markets, as part of a comprehensive enforcement order on competition last summer.
- Khan will now have the votes to propose new rules on unfair competition practices, child confidentiality, consumer confidentiality and the use of non-compete agreements, along with the use of data and surveillance.
2. Aggressive imposition of transactions. The same enforcement order says the FTC has the power to challenge previous mergers, something the FTC itself emphasized when Amazon struck a deal with MGM after the agency’s review time expired.
- The agency’s observers told Axios Khan that it could wait to file a bigger lawsuit against Amazon, which goes beyond buying MGM.
- “[Khan] was put in charge of the agency with a strong bipartisan majority to deal with market power problems stemming from Big Tech. At the heart of these problems is their ability to use their power in the markets through acquisitions, “Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, told Axios.
3. Stricter guidelines for mergers. The administration has called on the FTC to carefully investigate mergers and acquisitions from dominant Internet platforms, especially when buying smaller competitors, and Khan will be able to consider and challenge mergers more successfully with the Bedoya vote.
- Separately, the FTC and DOJ are also in the process of developing new merger guidelines that could change the way companies approach acquisitions.
- “On the antitrust side, the number one element is probably the revision of the merger guidelines, along with the DOJ,” Daniel Francis, former deputy head of the FTC’s Competition Bureau, told Axios. “In practice, this is the most important document for control and review of mergers in the country and everyone is waiting to see what the agencies will change. The new third vote will change everything. “
What they say: Bedoya’s arrival means “urgent work to control the uncontrolled power of increasingly concentrated industries can finally move forward at the FTC”, Alex Harman, Director of Government Competition Policy at the Economic Security Project , a non-profit antitrust organization founded by former Meta co-founder Chris Hughes, told Axios.
On the other hand, critics of Khan’s FTC, including the US Chamber of Commerce, have said its new democratic majority marks the end of the agency’s bipartisanship.
- “As soon as she gets a third vote, I expect an unprecedented stream of aggressive, partisan action that continues to undermine the commission’s long history of bipartisanship,” said Neil Chilson, senior research and innovation fellow at Stand Together and a former FTC. advisor.
Between the lines: Democratic Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, former acting chairman, and Bedoya will have significant leverage over the agency’s work, as Khan will need their support to push his program in the face of the Republican opposition.
Yes, but: Khan will also need the support of FTC staff to write rules and guidelines. A recent survey showed low confidence in senior leaders among FTC employees, and Politico reported tensions between FTC management and longtime employees.
- “The FTC was a gem of an agency, a community of consumer protection professionals,” tweeted FTC Republican Commission Commissioner Christine Wilson about the study. “The new leadership is marginalizing and disrespecting staff, leading to a brain drain that will take a generation to fix.”
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