Riding a wave of populist support for tougher enforcement of the antitrust laws, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced a number of changes over the last several months making clear that it intends to significantly expand its antitrust enforcement role, particularly with respect to mergers and acquisitions. But in its zeal to usher in a new era of more robust enforcement and to reframe antitrust doctrine, these changes leave businesses with fewer enforcement signposts to guide them in strategic planning, and are likely to deter procompetitive transactions that would be good for competition and consumers alike.
Recently installed FTC Chair Lina Khan is a progressive reformer who, before being tapped by President Biden, was an academic fellow at Columbia Law School and had never worked in the private sector. Her brief and remarkable career trajectory was launched by an article she wrote in 2017 while in law school at Yale—Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox.
The article was originally published by Washington Legal Foundation.
Read the full article at www.wlf.org.