FTC Accused Of Bringing Cases They “Expect To Lose” In Hearing, After Losing MS Case
FTC head Lina Khan did not have the best of it facing a new congressional inquiry, after her agency just lost the injunction case vs the Microsoft Activision deal.
As reported by IGN, Khan was at a hearing simply called the Oversight of the Federal Trade Commission. This was one of several hearings where Congress inquired the FTC and deliberated on the merits of the agency’s decision making.
While Khan has become a somewhat famous personality because of the role she took in the Microsoft Activision deal, she has been a divisive character in politics since she took the chairpersonship of the FTC.
As this NPR piece explains, Khan’s agenda has been to expand the FTC’s role of overseeing consumer protection, towards taking on industry giants. That includes Microsoft, but also Amazon, Twitter, and others, with a particular focus on tech.
Her agenda has so far led to staggering losses when it comes to actually bringing competition and antitrust cases to court. But, this Skadden analysis suggests that she is succeeding in a broader agenda of setting precedents that expand what the FTC can do in the future.
It should also be said that there is a high correlation between Lina Khan’s tenure and a new toxic work environment in the FTC that wasn’t there before. This MLex article discusses a survey that revealed lower trust in FTC of their leadership. Famously, former FTC regulator Christine Wilson blamed Khan’s tenure for her resignation.
On the heels of the FTC’s latest loss, Khan was grilled by Republican Representative Kevin Kiley. He asked her:
“You seem to be losing quite a bit, and I don’t say that to be disrespectful, but these are, after all, taxpayer funds.
You are now 0-4 in merger trials. The average win rate for the FTC
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