‘Unlike anything I’ve seen at the FTC’: Biden’s chair makes her public debut
Under Biden nominee Lina Khan, the agency met in public for the first time in decades — and split along party lines on an aggressive enforcement agenda.
The Federal Trade Commission's first meeting under new Chair Lina Khan broke decades of precedent Thursday by taking place in public — something unheard-of for the notably secretive antitrust and consumer protection agency.
Then it pushed through a series of actions on progressive Democrats' wish list: Fines for companies that lie about products being "Made in America." Greater latitude for launching antitrust probes and lawsuits. And a wider door to writing new regulations — something else the FTC hasn't done much of in decades.
All this came despite fierce objections from the commission's two Republicans, in a sign that partisan rancor is also back in vogue at the Biden-era FTC.
Thursday's videoconferenced session was the first public glimpse of what may lie in store for the 106-year-old agency under its youngest-ever chair, a former Columbia University law professor who made her reputation as a critic of tech giants like Amazon. And fellow tech critics were particularly thrilled.
“More progress was made today than in the last quarter-century,” said Jeff Chester, of the watchdog group Center for Digital Democracy, who has done work before the FTC since the 1990s. "Its very, very important and it’s unlike anything I’ve seen at the FTC."
Here are POLITICO's takeaways from Khan's debut:
more:
http://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/01/ftc-lina-khan-antitrust-chair-497764
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