Amazon pleads to remove anti-Amazon pioneers from antitrust investigations

by New America

Amazon submitted a petition to the FTC on June 30, 2021 requesting that Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Lina Khan be excluded from Amazon's investigation into antitrust law. I understand. Mr. Khan, who became the youngest FTC chairman in history in June 2021, is known as an anti-Amazon flag bearer, having attracted attention in a treatise that severely criticized Amazon when he was a law school student.

Amazon Seeks Recusal of FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan in Antitrust Investigations of Company --WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-seeks-recusal-of-ftc-chairwoman-lina-khan-in-antitrust-investigations-of-company-11625067962

Amazon seeks recusal of FTC chair Lina Khan in antitrust probes
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/30/amazon-seeks-recusal-of-ftc-chair-lina-khan-in-antitrust-probes.html

Amazon says new FTC chair shouldn't regulate it because she's too mean --The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/30/22557456/amazon-lina-khan-recusal-petition-federal-trade-commission-antitrust

In June 2021, the Joe Byden administration appointed Associate Professor Lina Khan, a legal scholar at Columbia Law School, to chair the FTC. In 2017, when he was a law school student at Yale University, Kahn published a paper entitled 'Amazon's Antitrust Paradox' and won multiple awards. Famous as a leading expert on the issue of.

Regulatory scholar known for anti-Amazon treatises becomes chairman of the Federal Trade Commission-GIGAZINE

by New America

Amazon mentioned Khan's career in a (PDF file) petition filed with the FTC, saying, 'Khan has long been guilty of antitrust violations and should be dismantled.' He has often professed, which shows that he lacks the fairness needed to undertake an investigation into Amazon. '

Amazon spokeswoman Jack Evans told CNBC, 'No matter how big a company, we have the right to a fair investigation. In Khan's past activities and in public. He should not be involved in a case like this, as it suggests that the investigation he conducts as FTC chairman is conclusive. ' Meanwhile, FTC declined to comment.

According to Wayne State University professor Stephen Calkins, a former FTC legal counsel, the petition for the removal of FTC members has rarely been successful. For example, Google, which was investigated by the FTC in 2007, sought dismissal because the FTC chairman's husband at the time worked for an EU law firm that was involved in Google's issues. The FTC has rejected this. Also in 2010, Intel called for the removal of one of the FTC members because he had a background in the company's legal affairs, which was also rejected.

However, there are few precedents for the FTC chairman to be excluded from the survey due to past background. When a problem in the pharmaceutical industry was raised in 1966, the court decided that the FTC chairman should not participate in the investigation, as the then FTC chairman had many similar investigations as a parliamentary staff member. You may. In 1970, it was decided that the FTC chairman at the time should not participate in the investigation of the same issue, as the content of the speech was strongly expressed in the opinion on the false advertising issue.

In addition, on June 29, 2021, the FTC, which had been suing Facebook for violating the Antimonopoly Act, lost the case, and IT companies are now turning to counterattack against the FTC's offensive.

Facebook's market capitalization surpasses $ 1 trillion for the first time, following the dismissal of allegations of antitrust violations --GIGAZINE

The Verge, an IT news site, said, 'As the FTC revealed in a Facebook trial, the court's decision can greatly diminish the power of the FTC, but Khan said the White House and Congress. Amazon's flag is bad because it seized the opportunity with the support of both, so the real purpose of this petition is to show that Amazon is willing to stand up every time. I think it is. '