Biden Announces Intent to Nominate Lina Khan as Federal Trade Commission Commissioner

Lina Khan was announced as the intended nominee of President Joe Biden for the position of Federal Trade Commission commissioner. (columbia.edu photo)

India-West Staff Reporter

President Joe Biden March 22 announced his intent to nominate Pakistani American Lina Khan for the Federal Trade Commission commissioner post, the White House said in a news release.

Khan is an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School, where she teaches and writes about antitrust law, infrastructure industries law and the antimonopoly tradition.

Her antitrust scholarship has received several awards and has been published by the Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Columbia Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Review, her bio notes.

Khan previously served as counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, where she helped lead the Subcommittee’s investigation into digital markets.

Khan was also a legal adviser in the office of Commissioner Rohit Chopra at the Federal Trade Commission and legal director at the Open Markets Institute. She is a graduate of Williams College and Yale Law School, it said.

Khan is best known for her 2017 article, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” which was awarded the 2018 Antitrust Writing Award for “Best Academic Unilateral Conduct Article,” the Yale Law School’s Israel H. Peres Prize, and the Yale Law Journal’s Michael Egger Prize.

Her article, “The Separation of Platforms and Commerce,” won the 2019 Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund’s Best Antitrust Article on Remedies, and her co-authored article, “The Case for ‘Unfair Methods of Competition’ Rulemaking,” received the 2020 Antitrust Writing Award for “Best General Antitrust Academic Article.”

She has presented her work before the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, the House Judiciary Committee, and the European Commission.

As one of five members of the FTC, Khan, reported the Wall Street Journal, would be in a “position to influence policies, rulemakings and enforcement actions at an agency with authority to administer antitrust and consumer-protection laws.”

She won’t be able to dictate decisions, given that she is likely to be one of three members of a Democratic majority, noted the publication.

Public Citizen, the advocacy group, said the Wall Street Journal called the expected nomination “a hopeful sign that the Biden administration intends to take a more aggressive approach,” pointing to her experience as a congressional staffer.

But it also reported that Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah), called Khan’s potential appointment “deeply concerning” in a statement March 9.

“Ms. Khan no doubt has a promising career ahead of her, but being less than four years out of law school, she lacks the experience necessary for such an important role as FTC Commissioner. Her views on antitrust enforcement are also wildly out of step with a prudent approach to the law,” he was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal.

Khan is a graduate of Williams College and Yale Law School, where was awarded the Reinhardt Fellowship for public interest law.