Why the FTC Is Losing Against Big Tech | WSJ

Since Lina Khan was appointed Federal Trade Commission chair in 2021, she’s taken on Meta, Microsoft, Twitter and Amazon, and that’s made her a lightning rod for controversy and criticism. A number of her antitrust moves against big tech have been met with setbacks and losses.

WSJ breaks down the battles she’s picked to block mergers, why she’s already lost some of them and where she goes from here.

0:00 Khan battling big tech
0:29 Khan’s FTC
4:09 How Khan got to the FTC
5:45 Controversy and criticism

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[spacedye]

She isn’t losing. The previous heads of the FTC would only bring iron clad cases to court and then would settle instead of winning large cases.

[thegranolamusician]

The idea that we should stop attempting to enforce our laws solely because we think we might not always win in court is a foolish and dangerous way to run our country. We’ve had decades of corporate consolidation across all industries in America, mostly thanks to lax enforcement of our antitrust laws by previous FTC admins. Pair that with some irresponsible rulings made by our Supreme Court to invite dark corporate money into public affairs, and these corporations have more money and power than any time in recently history. We need more people like her in public service.

[JK-nxmy]

The WSJ publishes an anti-Khan article on average once every 10 days.

You guys sure are in the tank!

[raggedflaggon]

For people who don't understand, Khan is actually enforcing anti trust law after 45 years. We used to have 100 military contractors, we now have 5, we used to have many grocery chains on the west coast, we are about to have 1 big one, we used to have 50 big media companies we now have 6 etc etc. There are regional monopolies everywhere that no longer need to compete. They can just price gouge people now. The wsj has written over 70 hit pieces on khan because they are owned by big companies. Anti trust is about making sure power is not in the hands of a small group of people. A.k.a, if you don't like oligopolies then be happy khan is trying to enforce anti trust law. It also seems to be working because mergers are way down.

[JillKnapp]

She's not losing, but the WSJ and its readers are worried that they might actually start having to comply with, y'know, laws.

[TheRealTomWendel]

Khan is brilliant. She understands the reasons behind inflation- monopolies and oligopolies in charge of almost every sector of the American economy. This harms both consumers and employees. This isn’t the first time we’ve faced this problem, so the are solutions (suggested by classical economics) in place to address it. Those solutions simply need to be applied.

Khan has been incredibly effective in doing that and getting the word out. That’s why the big money crowd disdains her and are calling for her removal.

[skjoldgames]

Lina Khan and the FTC are doing some of the most important work in the world right now and they don't get a fraction of the recognition they deserve. While congress is raking the middle class over the coals with insider trading, she's putting the future of this country ahead of her own financial gain, and that says a lot about her integrity.

[yomajo]

Journal of Wall street criticises FTC. Was this supposed to be informative? Look at her interview at new york economic club if you want her perspective.

[MarkJanssen]

Trying and failing isn’t losing on purpose. She is the only FTC chair in my lifetime that is at least trying. Every other one just didn’t even try. So I respect the fact that she has gotten some wins that others wouldn’t get, and that she is trying to get some even more huge wins.

[godzilla]

Gives a whole new meaning to The Wrath of Khan. 😅😅😅😅

[Vospader]

Go Lina go! Someone has to take these people on!

[GPTDavid]

Give me a break... losing creates a bad precedent as suppose to what? Just letting things happen?
You're telling me you don't want the FTC to try because losing might look bad so they should just let big players do whatever they want...

You're in another world buddy.

[whyno]

FTC and their European counterparts didn't have a clue about the gaming industry's organization - a viscously competitive market with little barriers to entry and the consumers have numerous choices. Where was their anti-trust investigative spirit when Comcast, AT&T etc. were fleecing us with their monopolistic internet pricing?

[GamerbyDesign]

All the tech companies have unlimited budgets...This is like F1 racing where the team with the most money always wins. But she should keep slugging at it. You make enough dents and you can get some cracks going. Maybe rethink strategies to get more damage in. one thing is for sure all these companies need to be broken up.

[ryan.m.weisgerber]

Entirely unsurprising that institutional-leaning people in a corrupt system are criticizing someone who's trying to reveal cracks in the foundation they're all standing on.

"Well, I disagree with what she's doing!" says a paradigm-blind person benefiting from and reinforcing a broken system.

[rurutuM]

yeah it does feel like she is losing on purpose. but it also highlight the fact that our laws are too lax in controlling these mega trillion dollar companies

[imaprinta]

I find it ridiculous that there are people on both sides of the aisle who criticize her efforts to increase competition and prevent monopolies - even partial monopolies - from having an outsize influence on this country. Anyone who opposes that doesn't understand how the economy works ... or is supposed to.

[bernl]

The way you do business in North America yes she’s right she’s very right it’s wrong it’s not helping the American public and quite frankly I think it’s obvious how many more homeless people do you need to convey the message

[zach_bijiuni]

The resolve and power she carries in such a small frame is truly remarkable.

[lifequotient]

Would they demand recusal if she had financial ties? Recusal for past criticism is laughable. This woman is a hero and the object of a big money witch hunt.