US President Joe Biden is reportedly planning to nominate antitrust scholar Lina Khan to the Federal Trade Commission, a move that would indicate his administration is open to aggressive antitrust regulation not only generally but specifically against Amazon and other Big Tech firms.
The Washington rumor mill has been floating Khan’s name as a possible candidate for the commission ever since Biden won the election, and Politico reported today that the White House is indeed planning to tap her for the role, which requires Senate confirmation. At present, Khan is an associate law professor at Columbia Law School.
Khan vaulted directly to antitrust superstardom in 2017, while she was still a law student, when she published her blockbuster paper, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” in the Yale Law Journal.