{"id":17905,"date":"2025-05-22T18:23:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T18:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=17905"},"modified":"2025-05-22T18:23:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T18:23:32","slug":"trumps-ftc-chair-is-continuing-to-push-lina-khans-antitrust-ideology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=17905","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s FTC Chair Is Continuing To Push Lina Khan&#8217;s Antitrust\u2028Ideology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&#8220;Congress&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/legal-library\/browse\/statutes\/federal-trade-commission-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">established the FTC<\/a>&nbsp;in 1914 to prevent unfair competition and deceptive business practices. This has primarily meant &#8220;protecting Americans in their role as&nbsp;<em>consumers<\/em>,&#8221; according to Ferguson. The FTC enforces the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/clayton_antitrust_act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Clayton Antitrust Act<\/a>, which outlawed price discrimination between customers, exclusive dealing, interlocking directorates, and mergers or acquisitions that &#8220;substantially reduce competition.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Khan was more interested in Americans&#8217; role as producers than consumers. In 2022 she signed a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/ftcnlrb%20mou%2071922.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">memorandum of understanding<\/a>&nbsp;(MOU) with the National Labor Relations Board to &#8220;protect workers against unfair methods of competition, unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and unfair labor practices,&#8221; such as restrictive contract provisions. In August 2023, Khan signed a similar&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/23-mou-146_oasp_and_ftc_mou_final_signed.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MOU<\/a>&nbsp;with the Department of Labor recognizing both agencies&#8217; shared commitment to protecting workers from deceptive earnings claims, restrictive noncompete and nondisclosure contracts, and the &#8220;impact of labor market concentration.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ferguson&#8217;s endorsement of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/02\/21\/meet-the-new-ftc-same-as-the-old-ftc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2023 joint merger guidelines<\/a>, along with his&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/02\/25\/trumps-love-hate-relationship-with-big-tech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hostility to&nbsp;<\/a>the tech industry and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/dissenting-statement-commissioner-ferguson-regarding-non-alcoholic-beverages-price-discrimination-investigation.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">support<\/a>&nbsp;for enforcing the anti\u2013price discrimination\u2028Robinson-Patman Act, all suggest a continuation of Khan&#8217;s activist antitrust\u2028ideology. The Joint Labor Task Force is yet more evidence.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/05\/22\/new-ftc-boss-same-as-the-old-boss\">https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/05\/22\/new-ftc-boss-same-as-the-old-boss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Congress established the FTC in 1914 to prevent unfair competition and deceptive business practices. This has primarily meant &#8220;protecting Americans in their role as consumers,&#8221; according to Ferguson. The FTC enforces the Clayton Antitrust Act, which outlawed price discrimination between customers, exclusive dealing, interlocking directorates, and mergers or acquisitions that &#8220;substantially reduce competition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Khan was more interested in Americans&#8217; role as producers than consumers. In 2022 she signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the National Labor Relations Board to &#8220;protect workers against unfair methods of competition, unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and unfair labor practices,&#8221; such as restrictive contract provisions. In August 2023, Khan signed a similar MOU with the Department of Labor recognizing both agencies&#8217; shared commitment to protecting workers from deceptive earnings claims, restrictive noncompete and nondisclosure contracts, and the &#8220;impact of labor market concentration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson&#8217;s endorsement of the 2023 joint merger guidelines, along with his hostility to the tech industry and support for enforcing the anti\u2013price discrimination\u2028Robinson-Patman Act, all suggest a continuation of Khan&#8217;s activist antitrust\u2028ideology. The Joint Labor Task Force is yet more evidence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/05\/22\/new-ftc-boss-same-as-the-old-boss\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1079,221,1616,1166,236,551,170],"class_list":["post-17905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-antitrust","tag-donald-trump","tag-mergers","tag-monopoly","tag-regulation","tag-regulations","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17906,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17905\/revisions\/17906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}