The race to exchange Lina Khan as chair of the Federal Commerce Fee is coming to a head, pitting antitrust hawks in opposition to a prime candidate who’s seen taking a softer strategy to Huge Tech enforcement, sources instructed The Submit.
Populist allies of President-elect Donald Trump have pushed for a crackdown on Google and different Siliicon Valley companies — together with Vice President-elect JD Vance who prior to now has praised Khan, the 35-year-old trustbuster appointed in 2021 by President Biden.
Different prime Republicans, nevertheless, favor a extra business-friendly strategy to enforcement that may clear the best way for dealmaking and acquisitions.
A prime contender is Melissa Holyoak, a Republican FTC commissioner who is also the previous Republican solicitor-general of Utah.
Holyoak, who took warmth throughout her FTC vetting course of over her earlier ties to Silicon Valley, can be anticipated to permit for dealmaking as long as customers are protected, sources stated.
Holyoak is one in every of a trio of hopefuls that additionally consists of Andrew Ferguson, her fellow sitting Republican on the FTC, and former DOJ and FTC official Mark Meador, who served as an antitrust coverage adviser for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).
“I’d call Melissa the slight favorite,” one supply near the transition workforce instructed The Submit.
Nevertheless, anti-monopoly watchdogs have ripped Holyoak over her earlier five-year stint as an lawyer on the Aggressive Enterprise Institute, a free market suppose tank that has obtained funding from Google, Meta and Amazon and which “advocates abolishing antitrust law,” based on its web site.
“There’s a big divide between Big Tech and Little Tech. She is very much seen as the preferred choice of Big Tech,” the supply near the transition workforce stated. “That is definitely the biggest thing working against her. I could see that closeness with Meta and Google ultimately derailing her.”
As for Meador, the Monetary Occasions just lately cited issues amongst unnamed “Wall Street and Big Tech executives” who reportedly worry that he would proceed the identical practices as Khan and Kanter.
Lee, the influential prime Republican on the Senate’s antitrust subcommittee, instructed the FT that he was assured that both Holyoak and Meador would “continue to hold Big Tech accountable” in the event that they have been picked.
Ferguson is the previous chief counsel to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and as soon as clerked for Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas.
Considerations that Ferguson’s ties to McConnell — who has had a tough relationship with Trump through the years — may damage his probabilities to land the highest FTC gig are overblown, based on Mike Davis, the previous chief counsel for nominations to beneath then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley.
“He worked for McConnell, but he’s a hard-charging, Trump supporting ‘America First’ populist,” Davis stated. “Andrew has proven that at every job he’s held, whether it was in the Senate where he confirmed Trump’s judges, in the Virginia attorney general’s office when he brought the groundbreaking antitrust lawsuit against Google, and on the Federal Trade Commission, where he’s held Big Tech accountable.”
As present commissioners, Ferguson and Holyoak have already been confirmed by the Senate and wouldn’t must undergo the method once more.
That offers them a neater path to take over as performing chair and ultimately the everlasting decide.
Conversely, Meador would first need to be confirmed as an FTC commissioner — a prolonged course of that might doubtless see Trump appoint Holyoak or Ferguson as performing chair till it could possibly be accomplished.
Holyoak’s workforce believes that she has a “very good shot” to be named performing FTC chair following Khan’s departure, a second supply aware of the scenario stated.
Khan and DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter are set to go away their posts after Trump’s inauguration after taking a hard-charging strategy to enforcement that infuriated Wall Avenue and Silicon Valley.
A number of sources described the scenario as fluid and couldn’t rule out the likelihood that Trump would nix all three frontrunners and decide another person.
Different current picks, equivalent to lawyer normal nominee Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent, are anticipated to have enter on the FTC choice as nicely.
“If President Trump picks Holyoak as acting or permanent FTC chair, it’s an indication that he’s throwing in the towel against Big Tech,” one former Capitol Hill staffer who tracks antitrust points instructed The Submit. “Lobbyists, executives and lawyers for Big Tech companies will rejoice far and wide.”
Earlier this yr, The Submit obtained emails that confirmed a chummy relationship between Holyoak and her former colleagues at CEI, together with exchanging authorized recommendation on notable circumstances such because the Apple v. Epic Video games antitrust battle.
Throughout one alternate with Holyoak, CEI boss Kent Lassman wrote of the FTC that “burning it to the ground is too good for it.”
A supply near Holyoak pushed again on the criticism, noting that she confronted off in court docket in opposition to Google, TikTok and Fb throughout her time in Utah and has by no means represented any of the businesses in personal follow.
Holyoak has additionally pushed for the FTC to crack down on de-platforming and censorship by Huge Tech corporations, most just lately in a concurring assertion associated to an FTC motion in opposition to on-line sneaker retailer GOAT earlier this month, the supply added.
In Utah, Holyoak performed a task in negotiating the phrases of Google’s $700 million settlement with a coalition of US states over anticompetitive Android app retailer practices — a deal that some critics blasted as being too lenient.
A key piece of Trump’s antitrust agenda took form Wednesday after he nominated Gail Slater, an Oxford-educated lawyer and prime Vance aide, to function the Justice Division’s assistant lawyer normal on antitrust.
Slater had additionally been seen as a prime contender for FTC chair previous to her choice. Anti-monopoly watchdogs lauded the transfer as an indication that Trump needs a crackdown on companies like Google and Apple to proceed.
In his Fact Social publish asserting the decide, Trump stated “Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector” and added that the DOJ antitrust division would proceed a crackdown on dangerous actors “under Gail’s leadership.”
One tech coverage government who requested anonymity stated Holyoak’s nomination as FTC chair can be a boon to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, who’s presently being sued by the FTC — at the same time as its rivals, Google and Apple, are being sued by the DOJ.
“Meta is fine with Gail at DOJ and Melissa heading FTC because they’ll have a bulldog going after their enemies [Apple and Google] at the DOJ and a lapdog ending their prosecutions by the FTC,” the tech coverage government stated.
Trump transition workforce spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt didn’t return requests for remark.
She beforehand stated that selections about Trump’s nominations “will be announced when they are made.”
Holyoak and Slater declined to remark. Meador didn’t return a request for remark.
