Antitrust and Opposition to Policy Change

In this piece, author Erik Peinert shares how Lina Khan’s appointment as chair of the Federal Trade Commission in 2021 marked a sharp turn in U.S. antitrust enforcement. Confirmed by a bipartisan Senate vote, Khan quickly began reversing policies that had constrained the FTC’s legal reach and signaled a new era of aggressive scrutiny toward corporate concentration, particularly in the tech sector. These moves unsettled many longtime FTC staff, some of whom chose to leave rather than reverse long-standing positions. Her leadership, along with President Biden’s broader agenda, underscored a commitment to reinvigorating antitrust enforcement after decades of a more restrained approach.

This shift was not simply about personalities or internal disputes but reflected a sweeping policy transformation. Around the same time, major lawsuits were filed against Google and Facebook by the Department of Justice, the FTC, and nearly every state attorney general, accusing the companies of anticompetitive practices. Biden also appointed Jonathan Kanter, another critic of Big Tech, to lead the DOJ’s antitrust division and signed an executive order promoting competition across the economy. Together with a series of congressional bills proposing to modernize antitrust law, these actions represented a profound departure from the earlier era when enforcement against dominant firms was rare.

Peinert situates this political shift within a broader economic context of growing monopoly power. Since the 1980s, U.S. industries have become increasingly concentrated under the “consumer welfare” standard, which prioritized efficiency over concerns about competition. Research shows rising markups and higher costs for consumers, with households paying thousands more annually for basic goods and services due to reduced competition. Platform-based business models and strengthened intellectual property protections have further entrenched dominant firms like Amazon, enabling them to leverage data and IP to maintain control. These dynamics have fueled income inequality, weakened investment in productive sectors, and slowed business creation, intensifying the urgency of the current antitrust debates…

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