At The Economic Club of New York, Lina Khan, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, defended her progressive stance on antitrust enforcement. This was only a week after the FTC and the Justice Department's Antitrust Division unveiled their draft merger policy. Additionally, Khan commented on the FTC's success in handling merger cases in court.
At an event on Monday, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan defended her progressive approach to antitrust enforcement, which has drawn strong criticism from the business community. Khan noted that the FTC is guided by the statues passed by Congress that favor competition over monopoly. “But there are certainly instances in which you need to have big firms to be able to deliver the types of services and scale that we need,” she said. News of the new guidelines from the FTC and Department of Justice Antitrust Division for evaluating mergers sparked backlash from business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who warned that the guidelines would have a “chilling effect” on merger activity.
Khan said that even though the FTC and DOJ take action on a small portion of merger filings, those that fall on the margins can lead to course correcting. She also defended the agency’s record in court, noting that it has lost only two out of the 13-20 cases it has brought. Khan acknowledged that older cases are still routinely cited in modern merger decisions, but noted that updates to the merger filing form are meant to accelerate the review process. Finally, she acknowledged that she could have done a better job of making clear that criticisms of prior administrations were not meant to impugn the integrity of the agency’s career staff.
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