Big Tech Critic Lina Khan Nominated To FTC

Lina Khan, an associate Columbia Law School professor who writes about antitrust law, is now President Joe Biden’s nomination for commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), according to a press release from The White House.

Khan “teaches and writes about antitrust law, infrastructure industries law, and the antimonopoly tradition,” the release stated. Khan’s antitrust scholarship has received several awards and has been published by many law journals.

Khan has also been counsel for U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, where she worked with the committee’s digital market investigation, according to the release.

Prior to that, she was also a legal adviser for FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra and legal director at the Open Markets Institute, the release stated. She graduated from Williams College and Yale Law School.

PYMNTS reported on Khan’s likely status as a nominee, with sources telling Politico that she was likely to be affirmed so long as she was approved by the Senate.

As FTC commissioner, Khan would be tasked with working with the Department of Justice on antitrust law as well as alleged incidents of deceptive advertising.

Khan’s addition to the FTC might not come as a friendly one for the U.S. tech industry, which is likely to find her helming some more robust regulatory action if she’s approved.

At 32 years old, she would be the youngest commissioner if approved, and she would sit among three Democratic commissioners at the agency at a time when Democrats face accusations of not going hard enough against Big Tech.

Last year, Khan was an aide in the House Judiciary’s antitrust committee’s 16-month Big Tech investigation, which helmed a “substantial” report on that issue.

Big Tech is expected to face tougher rules from the Biden White House at a time when FinTechs, Big Tech and mainstream financial institutions are becoming more indistinguishable.