The Significance
Antitrust impacts many industries, but none as high-profile as the tech industry.
Under the Biden administration, the FTC and DOJ have waged high-level antitrust cases against Big Tech companies not only based on competitiveness issues but also their impacts on labor and consumers. But it is not a given that the Trump administration wouldn’t do the same. If we look back at the first Trump administration, it also took on big tech companies like Meta and Google, but that doesn’t automatically mean a Trump administration would keep Khan on.
“It’s very unlikely that he [Trump] would reappoint Lina Khan to be the chair given the likelihood that he will diverge from the Biden program on the number of fronts dealing with consumer protection or antitrust,” said Kovacic, the former FTC chair. “It’s very hard to imagine that he would reappoint Khan even though she has her enthusiasts in the Republican Party.”
In the same vein, not all are convinced that continuing with a democratic administration means Khan’s position is safe.
Advocacy groups such as the American Economic Liberties Project and the Open Markets Institute—which support Khan’s antitrust approach—fear that Harris would, in fact, name a new chair, Kovacic said.
“They are suspicious of Harris because they don’t trust the California DNA and the extensive exposure to the tech industry that she had when she was an elected official from California,” he said, referring to Harris’ tenure as the state’s attorney general and later a U.S. senator.
In addition, the Harris campaign has received donations from those in the very tech industry that Khan has targeted.
For example, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman has given $7 million to the vice president’s effort. Hoffman said on CNN recently that Harris should replace Khan.
The Information
Want to know more? Here’s what we’ve discovered in the ALM Global Newsroom:
The Forecast
No matter who wins, there will be substantial change, according to experts. A re-elected Trump will almost certainly return to his administrative policies, reversing the reversals of the current administration, while a President Harris may, consistent with her 2020 campaign promises and her votes as a Senator, press an even more progressive regulatory agenda than President Biden.
University of Pennsylvania law professor Herbert Hovenkamp said Harris’ focus on labor in her bid for the presidency is telling.
“[Harris] has tried very hard in her campaign the last couple of months to reach out to labor of various types, and I do not see her letting up one bit on the Biden administration’s interest in using the antitrust laws to protect labor,” Hovenkamp said. “Based on her enthusiasm about labor, she will continue the Biden administration’s efforts to use antitrust to protect against anti-poaching agreements that suppress wages or noncompetes, or the use of merger law to go after mergers that harm labor.”
Americans are concerned about the prices of food, medical care and gasoline, which antitrust enforcement can address, Hovenkamp said.
“If you ask Americans what is your biggest concern, they’re mainly pocketbook issues, and antitrust can speak to those, particularly in areas like price fixing and conventional market dominance concerns,” Hovenkamp added.
But according to experts, no matter who wins in November, the world of executive regulation will be remade, thanks to shifts in both law and policymaking.
