Archive Archive
Very interesting, this stuff could be very cool, and also a sisyphean task. i can't say i'm excited to see all these organizations wildly flail back and forth between progressive and conservative value systems every four years, but it's nice to finally see these things being addressed. dark laughter
Khan outlined five principles of her plan:
Have a “holistic approach to identifying harms.” Khan said the agency should recognize that workers and independent businesses, in addition to consumers, can be harmed by antitrust and consumer protection violations. The popular antitrust framework has focused heavily on consumer harm, often viewed as whether prices go up or down, to determine a violation of the law. But Khan has argued in her academic writing for a broader approach that could better assess harm by digital platforms, which often charge no or low fees to consumers in exchange for rapid growth.
Focus on “targeting root causes rather than looking at one-off effects.” Khan said staff should look at how certain business models or conflicts of interest can help firms violate the law.
Integrate more “analytical tools and skillsets” for more empirical assessments of business practices.
Be “forward-looking” and act fast to mitigate harm. Khan said this includes paying special attention to “next-generation technologies, innovations, and nascent industries across sectors.”
Democratize the FTC by making sure it’s “in tune with the real problems that Americans are facing in their daily lives.”
Khan then laid out three specific policy priorities based on those goals:
Addressing consolidation across industries by revising merger guidelines for businesses and deterring deals that are illegal on their face and have overwhelmed commission resources. The agency has seen such an influx in transactions that it’s begun telling some businesses to merge at their own risk even when it hasn’t finished reviewing their deals.
Going after “dominant intermediaries and extractive business models.” Khan wrote, “Business models that centralize control and profits while outsourcing risk, liability, and costs also warrant particular scrutiny, given that deeply asymmetric relationships between the controlling firm and dependent entities can be ripe for abuse.”
Assessing how contracts can set up unfair methods of competition or deceptive practices. Khan mentioned non-competes and repair restrictions in the memo.
Khan has been among the leading voices for more vigorous antitrust enforcement and sparked a movement in the field with her 2017 Yale Law Journal article titled “roam:Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox .” The article, which Khan wrote while still a law student, argued a popular antitrust framework focused on consumer welfare was inadequate to assess dominant tech firms such as Amazon.
But her time at the helm has also been marked by intense opposition from the commission’s two Republicans. At the commission’s newly open meetings, Commissioners Noah Joshua Phillips and Christine Wilson have criticized the way public comment is held until the end of the voting sessions and argued that certain votes were rushed ahead of public input.