The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina M. Khan has appointed directors to the Bureau of Competition and Bureau of Consumer Protection. This is a significant development as the agency continues to take steps to protect consumers from anticompetitive and deceptive practices.
Lina M. Khan is an American lawyer, policy analyst, and advocate whose work focuses on antitrust law and policy. In this article, we will briefly overview her professional career and discuss the implications of her appointment.
Overview of Lina M. Khan
Lina M. Khan is a legal scholar whose work has focused on the intersection of competition law and antitrust issues, particularly with large technology companies. She is an assistant professor at Columbia Law School. Also, she serves as the Director of Legal Policy at the Open Markets Institute where she works to raise public awareness about monopolisation, corporate concentration and related anticompetitive business practices.
Khan was born in 1985 in London but moved to the United States as a child with her family. In 2007, she graduated from Yale University and subsequently attended Harvard Law School where she worked as a student editor for the Harvard Law Review from 2009 to 2010. After graduating from law school in 2012, Khan served as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer until 2014 before returning to Harvard’s Institute for Global Law & Policy as a visiting fellow. Her work there centred around increasing transparency in public agency rulemaking processes. She left Harvard in 2017 for her current position at Columbia Law School.
Throughout her career Khan has been an advocate for strengthening antitrust enforcement against large companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook that have become increasingly powerful and influential over markets such as communications technology, retail goods and services, digital media content delivery, e-book publishing etc… Her articles have been influential among state attorneys general and members of Congress who are considering ways to use existing antitrust laws to regulate these companies’ competition practices.
Background
Lina M. Khan is a legal scholar and the newly appointed chair of the Federal Trade Commission. She is the first woman of colour to have held this position. She is also a leading expert in antitrust law, and her appointment is seen as a pivotal moment for the FTC that will guide the agency toward increasing competition and consumer protection.
This article will analyse Khan’s background and examine her impact on the FTC.
Khan’s Professional Career
Since 2013, Lina M. Khan has been a fellow at the Open Markets Institute. She has engaged in legal advocacy campaigns and has been a thought leader on antitrust, competition policy, and corporate power. Before joining the Open Markets Institute, she was an executive editor of Yale Law Journal and a law clerk for Judge Millett of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Khan is also a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic at The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and is actively involved in discourse on antitrust issues. In 2017, Khan featured in the WIRED magazine’s ‘Smart List’ – highlighting 25 remarkable people to shape our future lives – and participated in TED Talks Global Ideas Conference in Vancouver, Canada with her presentation on Concentration of Power in Online Marketplaces. Apart from these appearances, she has often been featured by prominent universities such as Columbia Law School, University of Toronto Faculty of Law and The George Washington University for her work around tackling abusive corporate practices through empowering citizens with agency to participate in democratic decision-making processes.
Khan graduated from Yale Law School with an JSD (Doctoral) degree specialising in the field of corporate competition laws; receiving numerous awards from Yale including Greenberg Prize Scholarship which enabled her to pursue research on topics such as internet privacy laws, freedom of expression norms and antitrust laws enforcement constitutionality study under their “Network & Netwars” project headed by laureates such Edmund Phelps & Jane Fonda respectively; followed by most recently Tyler Prize administered by Yale MacMillan Center with additional encouragement award Prizes & Scholarships: leading her way up till today being offered distinguished positions – consultant/scholar roles under government sally Corporation /Universities respectively worldwide being welcomed wherever related domain knowledge & constructs outreach were welcome .
She holds BA degree from UC Berkeley & practised Corporate attorney role across fin-tech/tech sector due enterprise :specialisation (SME) patent valuations/litigations/claims review being one among few domestic corporations staying well ahead on this curriculum since yrs till date !
Khan’s Education
Lina M. Khan is an American legal scholar who strongly advocates consumer protection. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale Law School in 2016 and began working as a staff attorney at the Open Markets Institute, which she helped found shortly after receiving her law degree.
At Yale, Khan studied with Professor Akhil Amar, where she explored topics ranging from antitrust law and policy to First Amendment law and freedom of speech. She was also part of the Global Constitutionalism Seminar led by Harold Hongju Koh, where she worked on international human rights and development issues in Southeast Asia.
While at Yale, Khan participated in two major legal internships that shaped her belief in the power of people to come together to constrain large organisations. During her first year in school, she worked with a union pension fund on employment litigation cases and later served as an editor of The Yale Law Journal during her final year at the Institution.
Appointment as FTC Chair
On Jan. 28, 2021, President Biden nominated Lina M. Khan to fill the role of FTC Chair. As FTC Chair, Khan is responsible for appointing Directors for the Bureau of Competition and Bureau of Consumer Protection for the FTC. Her appointment offers a unique opportunity to strengthen antitrust and consumer protection enforcement.
Let’s dive into Khan’s role and accomplishments as FTC Chair.
Khan’s Appointment to the FTC
On April 5, 2021, President Biden nominated Lina M. Khan to the Federal Trade Commission, making her the youngest chair ever appointed to that post. If confirmed by the Senate, Khan will become the first person of colour leading the FTC in its 112-year history.
Khan comes from a distinguished background in legal and antitrust policy. After earning her BA from Williams College in 2012 and graduating with honours from Yale Law School in 2016, she published a ground-breaking article on Amazon’s anti-competitive practices that caught the interest of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and served as an early reference on monopoly law. Khan has since served as Deputy Chief of Staff at Warren’s Senatorial Office and Special U.S. Congress Counsel in Washington D.C..
Her appointment marks a milestone for a nationwide shift toward modernising monopoly policy and breaking up existing monopolies to foster fair competition among firms and strengthen consumer protection along with businesses large and small alike. With expertise in antitrust law, consumer protection policy, digital economy regulation, market structure analysis, political process resilience, finance reform proposals for the tech sector along with others related legislative topics under her belt— there is no doubt that Khan will be an excellent steward to guide these efforts forward as FTC Chair if confirmed by the Senate this spring.
Khan’s Vision for the FTC
Lina Khan, the newly appointed FTC Chair, has a clear vision for the agency. As she has written in a Popular Democracy article and stated in her congressional testimony, Khan is focused on using the FTC’s consumer-protection authority to hold powerful entities—like tech companies and Wall Street firms—accountable and protect consumers from unchecked corporate power. In addition, khan believes that modern consumer protection must be proactive not just reactive and focus on privacy, competition, consumer rights and civil rights equally.
Khan proposes using the existing tools of the FTC to investigate potential violations of antitrust law and investigate complaints lodged by consumers. She also wants to ensure that the agency’s staff is adequately equipped with appropriate resources like digital literacy education and data science capabilities, enabling them to effectively detect anti competitive behaviour online. Additionally, Khan plans to incentivize merging companies undertaking “pro-competitive” commitments by allowing them swift regulatory approval. She will also direct staff resources towards rooting out deceptive behaviour from corporations including imposing civil penalties for such violations and pursuing criminal actions where appropriate.
Khan further seeks to create initiatives leveraging technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning which could strengthen enforcement actions and provide valuable insights into market structure. Lastly, Khan wants to build greater engagement with stakeholders so that citizens can make informed choices about their economic lives & have access to justice in case of disputes or abuses related to products or services they purchased or used.
It is evident Khan’s vision for the FTC takes us far beyond traditional notions of consumer protection law enforcement & promises to scrutinise corporate power more than ever before bringing it under its purview of law & regulation.
FTC Chair Lina M. Khan Appoints Directors of Bureau of Competition and Bureau of Consumer Protection
On April 20th 2021, FTC Chair Lina M. Khan announced the appointments of directors of Bureau of Competition and Bureau of Consumer Protection. Khan, appointed by President Biden, is the first Senate-confirmed chair of the FTC in nearly a decade.
With these appointments, Khan is taking bold steps to restore the FTC’s competitive enforcement and consumer protection capabilities. But, first, let’s take a look at the directors and their roles.
Overview of Bureau of Competition
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Bureau of Competition (BOC) works to maintain free and fair competition in U.S. markets, allowing for innovation and consumer choice. The BOC has a Division of Mergers and Acquisitions, which reviews company merger proposals to ensure that they do not violate antitrust laws; an Office of Policy Planning that develops initiatives to utilise the commission’s resources most effectively; and a Litigation Division that files cases to challenge unfair or deceptive business practices.
The BOC is led by a director, whose purpose is twofold: directing the Bureau’s strategy, operations and activities efficiently, as well as promoting public understanding of antitrust enforcement principles. On July 21, 2020, President Trump nominated Lina M. Khan for this position. Ms Khan is the staff attorney in the Office of Policy Planning at FTC’s BOC. She has worked on various investigations involving mergers and anticompetitive strategies in technology-related industries since 2017. Her expertise includes antitrust analysis in digital media markets such as Spotify/Pandora Music Group Inc., Ticketmaster/Live Nation Entertainment; Google/DoubleClick; and Amazon Books/Whole Foods Market Inc. She holds law degrees from Yale Law School (Juris Doctor), University College London—University Of London (Master of Laws), and Tata Institute Of Social Sciences— Mumbai India (LLM).
Overview of Bureau of Consumer Protection
The Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) serves as the primary point of enforcement activity for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in various areas affecting consumers. Its mission is to promote fairness and truth in the marketplace by preventing deception, unethical business practices, and other unfair practices related to the advertising, marketing, and selling goods and services.
The Bureau works collaboratively with the Bureau of Competition and other FTC Bureaus to protect American consumers from fraudulent and deceptive trade practices such as predatory lending, illegal debt collection, and misleading or false advertising. The Bureau also educates consumers on making informed decisions about their finances and protecting themselves from scams.
Under Lyndon L. Mayer’s leadership since July 2019 as Acting Director, the BCP has focused on issues like intellectual property protection; privacy protection; data security; effective anti-spam measures; identity theft prevention; protecting children’s personal information; reducing medical billing errors; preventing barriers to entry for new entrepreneurs in markets dominated by entrenched interests that may limit competition or drive up prices for no good reason; decreasing fraudulent investment scams that prey on seniors; safeguarding communications networks’ From cybercrime threats such as ransomware attacks.
The FTC is seeking a permanent Director for both the Bureau of Competition and Consumer Protection. President Biden nominated Lina M. Khan on Monday February 8th 2021 pending approval from both houses of Congress. Ms Khan is an expert in competition law who has taught at Yale Law School since 2018. She covers emerging trends including digital platform monopolies, bringing her expertise around consolidation efforts within markets such as those currently within search engines, payment processors, ad exchanges etc.. She formerly served at Amazon Watch where she was their general counsel helping provide access defence related issues amongst other duties related to Amazon’s effect on ecosystems worldwide.
Appointments of Directors
On June 9th 2021, the Federal Trade Commission announced the appointments of two Directors—Lina M. Khan as the Director of Bureau of Competition and Bruce H. Turney as Director of Bureau of Consumer Protection. Both Directors will serve seven-year terms utilising the leadership skills they bring to the agency and their dedication in championing competition and consumer protection with effective, data-driven, and transparent tools.
Lina M. Khan is a world-renowned legal scholar whose work on antitrust law reform has helped ignite a new energy into applying traditional antitrust principles to tech companies. She was most recently an Associate Professor of Law at Yale University Law School and previously served as a Research Fellow at the Open Markets Institute for which she was a primary draughtsman in its Report on Structural Separation Remedies for US Antitrust Policy.
Khan holds a J.D from Harvard Law School and B.A from the University of California Berkeley in Political Science and French Literature, with honours in Political Economy from U.C Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. She also clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his time as Circuit Judge for D.C Court Appeals before his time on Supreme Court Justice.
Bruce H Turney is an experienced professional turned leader who brings to FTC over two decades’ experience within consumer financial services industry working with different regulators across multiple states developing banking products and services plus consulting within payments technology area at Carl Marks Advisory Group LLC & Port Lincoln Capital LLC respectively where he represented clients with transactions addressing booksleuth investigations & Bankruptcy litigation while managing sectoral mergers amongst other responsibilities such as business planning, advising strategic actions or making decisions amid complex finance matters. He holds a degree with honours from Georgetown University Law Center’s Juris Doctor program; before this he studied economics as an undergraduate in Virginia Commonwealth University before obtaining CPA credentials, Licence 50 Securities State Administrator licence, Credit Union Compliance certifications, and national mortgage licensing system certification 978938.
