President-elect Donald Trump has picked his competition cop. He’s appointing Andrew Ferguson as the next Federal Trade Commission chair, replacing antitrust firebrand Lina Khan.
Experts expect Ferguson to unwind much of Khan’s short legacy regarding opposing mergers. Both share distrust for Big Tech, albeit for different reasons.
In a post, Ferguson wrote, “…we will end Big Tech’s vendetta against competition and free speech.”
“Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country … [he] will be the most America First and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History,” Trump posted.
Ferguson is already an FTC commissioner and sworn in earlier this year. That means he does not need confirmation to become the chair.
Before his time at the FTC, he was solicitor general in Virginia, a congressional aide, an antitrust litigator and once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Trump’s pick for Ferguson’s commissioner seat is Mark Meador, a former Senate antitrust aide. This will give Trump the conservative majority he’s looking for at the FTC and push Khan out the door.
“Her term expired in September, but she is allowed by law to remain on the commission until her successor is confirmed and comes to take office,” former FTC Chair William Kovacic explained. “So the speed with which she departs the commission will depend on her own personal preferences. Does she want to stay as part of a loyal opposition maintaining a three-vote block that could operate to retard the roll back of her program? On a personal level, it’s not enjoyable to go through that kind of demotion.”
Straight Arrow News interviewed Kovacic after the election about the direction Trump would take in antitrust enforcement.
“I think with respect to the Big Tech cases, those carry on without interference,” Kovacic said. “In other areas, he may back off some. I expect a more permissive approach towards mergers than the Biden enforcement agencies have taken, and that was one of the big irritants that even the Democratic donors expressed concern about, is that the deal-making environment has been made so much more difficult.”
Kovacic said, “without question,” Trump will relax merger enforcement.
The appointment of Ferguson comes on the same day the FTC won in court, fighting against the Kroger-Albertsons mega-supermarket merger. Now, Albertsons is suing Kroger for billions of dollars in damages over the busted merger.
