With two months until President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, his policy plans are clear in many areas. But what do the next four years of antitrust regulation look like after the Biden administration’s aggressive enforcement?
Unlike trade, immigration and energy policy, it’s not expected that Trump’s goal is to undo the previous administration’s work. And a lot has happened over the past four years. But when it comes to Big Tech, experts point out that there’s no love lost between Trump and Silicon Valley.
“It’s a sector he doesn’t particularly like,” former Federal Trade Commission Chair William Kovacic told Straight Arrow News. “So my general intuition is that in that area, he says, ‘Carry on.’”
President Joe Biden’s headline maker was the appointment of FTC Chair Lina Khan. While she’s certainly a disruptor, her results have been mixed. Khan failed to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard and Facebook’s purchase of virtual reality company Within Unlimited. Meanwhile, the FTC is waiting for a ruling on Kroger’s nearly $25 billion merger with Albertsons, while it prepares to launch an investigation into Microsoft’s cloud business.
When it comes to Khan, her term as chair and commissioner expired in September 2024.
“My instinct would be that on the day of the inauguration, that evening or the next day, President Trump will sign a letter that designates one of the two Republicans on the commission to be the chair, probably as acting chair,” Kovacic said.
Even after the incoming president replaces Khan as chair, she could remain a commissioner until her replacement clears the confirmation process.
“The speed with which she departs the commission will depend on her own personal preferences,” Kovacic said. “Does she want to stay as part of a loyal opposition, maintaining a three-vote bloc that could operate to retard a rollback of her program?”
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice recently won a landmark case against Google when a judge ruled it monopolized the search space. The government is now asking the judge to force Google to sell off Chrome as the most severe remedy. The DOJ started the case under Trump’s first administration.
In the specific case of Google, Kovacic doesn’t believe the Trump administration will stand in the way of any action.
“I think at a minimum that means that DOJ will have a pretty broad remit to proceed with wrapping up the case as it sees fit, without the White House jumping in and saying, ‘Don’t do that,’” he said.
The DOJ also stopped JetBlue from buying Spirit Airlines. In the absence of a merger, Spirit Airlines has filed for bankruptcy protection. But this is an area where the Trump administration could divert from Biden’s policy.
“I expect a more permissive approach towards mergers than the Biden enforcement agencies have taken,” Kovacic said.
The DOJ failed to stop UnitedHealthcare’s $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare during Biden’s term. And it is now investigating Hewlett Packard’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks. Executives at HP met with Justice Department officials last week to attempt to save the deal, according to Bloomberg.
The DOJ still has a full slate of cases against the likes of Apple, Ticketmaster-parent Live Nation, Visa and Google again, but this time for its lock in the digital ad space.
With a new administration set to take charge of antitrust, Kovacic said the antitrust legacy under Biden won’t disappear, especially when it comes to Khan, who has received support from incoming Vice President JD Vance.
“What she leaves behind, in part, is a renewed debate about what antitrust should be all about, and that’s going to be durable,” Kovacic said.
