Lina Khan and the Federal Trade Commission have been the target of endless Wall Street Journal hit pieces and antagonistic lobbying from billionaires hoping to cut short Khan’s tenure at the helm of the consumer protection agency. This is not a coincidence. Under Khan’s leadership, the small agency has punched well above its weight by writing cogent rules to protect consumers, blocking anticompetitive mergers, and bringing enforcement actions to punish illegal corporate practices.
Note: For a more comprehensive list of FTC actions, see this factsheet from the American Economic Liberties Project.
Rulemaking Efforts:
- Finalized a “click-to-cancel” rule that requires sellers to make canceling subscriptions as easy as enrolling for them.
- Finalized a rule to ban bait-and-switch tactics and junk fees used by car dealerships, which were costing consumers an estimated $3.4 billion each year.
- Finalized a rule to prohibit the purchase and sale of fake business reviews and testimonials.
- Finalized a rule to crack down on fraudulent “Made in the USA” labels.
- Filed a comment to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in support of NIST efforts to reactivate “march-in rights.” the ability of the federal government to license a patent to third parties if the invention was developed with federal government funding.
- Proposed a rule to prohibit unfair or deceptive fees that misrepresent the true costs of goods.
- Finalized a rule to ban exploitative non-compete agreements that apply to an estimated 30 millions workers and limit earnings, decrease new business formation, and restrict innovation.
- Trump-appointed Judge Ada Brown blocked the rule in August, but the FTC may appeal the ruling.
Enforcement Actions, Blocked Mergers, and Antitrust Cases:
- Filed an antitrust suit against Amazon alleging an “ongoing pattern of illegal conduct” to block competition, inflate prices, and stifle innovation.
- Challenged Kroger’s acquisition of Albertsons, which would eliminate competition, raise grocery prices, and harm workers.
- Reached a consent order to prevent anticompetitive harms of pharmaceutical company Amgen’s $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics.
- Fined Epic Games $520 million for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and misleading players into making unintentional purchases.
- Sued Walmart for allowing fraudulent money transfers that cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars while Walmart made millions in transaction fees.
- Reached a consent order to prevent Scott Sheffield, ex-CEO of oil producer Pioneer, from sitting on the board of Exxon following a merger of the companies. The FTC revealed that Sheffield allegedly colluded with OPEC to reduce gas production and raise prices.
- Fined Microsoft and Amazon $20 million and $25 million, respectively, for violations related to child privacy and collecting children’s data.
- Reached a settlement with pharma bro Martin Shrkeli to return $64.6 million to consumers he defrauded and banned Shrkeli from working in the industry again.
- Returned a total of $324 million to consumers through enforcement actions in 2023.
- Sued to block numerous attempted mergers, including by Lockheed Martin, Nvidia, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy, that were later dropped after the FTC began their investigation.
Corporate Pushback:
- The Wall Street Journal has written at least 117 articles attacking Lina Khan and the FTC’s aggressive record of holding corporations accountable under her leadership.
- Billionaire democratic donor Reid Hoffman called on a potential Harris administration to replace Khan as FTC chair.
- Chair of Expedia Group Barry Diller said he would lobby against Khan’s renomination and called her a “dope.”
- Billionaire donor and vocal Harris supporter Mark Cuban called for Khan to lose her job and said “she’s hurting more than she’s helping” because of efforts to break up Big Tech monopolies.
- Republicans manufactured a failed ethics scandal based on a memo recommending Khan recuse from the FTC case against Meta. The memo was written by an ethics official who held up to $50,000 in Meta stock.
- Antitrust revolvers who left public service for BigLaw or Big Tech jobs regularly get quotes in the business press to criticize Khan’s leadership.
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