Lina Khan’s Corporate Takedown

Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call

I know it, you know it. Corporations suck. They get to do whatever they want, with no repercussions. It feels like nobody in our government cares to fight back against them, that everyone in the federal branch is just as beholden to special interests as our House Representatives or Senators. But what if I told you that there was one person fighting for the rights of consumers, and the American working and middle classes?

That person? Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan.

In June of 2021, Lina Khan, a recent graduate of Yale Law School who had acquired some notoriety for her article in the Yale Law Journal titled, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox”, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the federal regulatory body that is in charge of enforcing the nation’s antitrust and consumer protection laws. Since then, Lina Khan has made headlines for the FTC pursuing historic legal action against corporations such as Microsoft for their attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard, Google in their historic loss in a lawsuit regarding its dominance over search engines, and perhaps more recently, the ongoing attempt to stop the merger of Kroger and Albertsons, which respectively own other large grocery chains such as Safeway, Ralphs, Vons, FoodsCo, and many others. Some prominent donors to the Harris/Walz campaign privately suggested that Khan be fired as FTC chair if Kamala Harris is elected president.

Not only should Lina Khan be kept as FTC chair come the inauguration of the next president, but she should become even more aggressive in tackling corporate interests. Corporate giants will continue attempting to consolidate in order to have an even bigger stranglehold on a given sector of the American economy. And if Lina Khan does keep her job as FTC chair after January, she will continue to do her essential duty of protecting consumers and competition in our economy by being more vigilant and critical of corporate mergers.

As consumers, we should all persist in our skepticism of corporate power and its influence on our economy, our society, and our democracy. Corporations in all industries, from gaming to food retail, hotel, and plenty more, never fail to disappoint the public by doing whatever they can to further entrench themselves into our economic and political systems. They employ hundreds of lobbyists and lawyers on retainer whenever federal, state, and local governments attempt anything to even slightly curtail corporate power.

It’s not often that the federal government manages to ruffle Wall Street feathers for this long without bowing down at some point — and it looks like Khan isn’t going to be backing down anytime soon.

Lina Khan’s continued resistance to corporate control demonstrates her commitment to ensure that big businesses are held accountable and bring into focus the broader need to reform the practices of big business that harm consumers. In the face of Wall Street anger at Khan, she has persisted in her fight.

Just recently, the FTC announced that it would be banning noncompete agreements, which are contracts that essentially bar employees from working for a competitive firm for a given amount of time after leaving their current position, though this specific order has since been stopped by a district court, according to the FTC website. On October 16, the FTC finalized a rule mandating that businesses simplify the cancellation process for subscriptions that consumers sign up for, a noticeable change from the previous status quo where many companies (like Planet Fitness) made it a difficult chore to cancel subscriptions, often leaving consumers to figure out the process with little or no help or simply give up and get stuck paying for a now useless subscription.

These cases, among others, have seriously ruffled some feathers in corporate America. The initiatives taken by the Federal Trade Commission, while only small steps in the grand scheme of things, still signal a big shift toward prioritizing the well-being of the American people over the welfare of big business — be it in banning non-compete agreements, tackling corporate mergers, simplifying the subscription cancelation process, or exposing how deeply entrenched big business has become in daily life.

The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Section itself has written over 100 hit pieces solely against Khan. When doing research for this article, I did a quick Google search to see if any more had been written. Lo and behold, another four pieces about Khan have been written since. I highly recommend taking a look at some of the articles, because the headlines alone sound so ridiculous that you’d think it was written by the Onion — except these articles aren’t being written by satirical journalists.

Khan has become a favorite among progressive lawmakers, who were already supportive of her when she assumed her current role. Recently, she hosted events with several progressive lawmakers in Congress such as Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).

But it isn’t just progressive Democrats who seem to be on her side — there exists a legion of conservative Republican politicians who call themselves “Khanservatives” and back the FTC’s latest tackling of corporate monopolies. Among these Republicans? Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), and even Donald Trump’s selection for Vice President, Ohio Senator JD Vance.

When we think of what a progressive firebrand like Bernie Sanders and former never-Trumper, now MAGA-loyalist JD Vance might agree on, the typical answer might be nothing. But it is on this one issue where these two factions in Washington seem to see eye-to-eye.

Regardless of whoever in Washington is supporting her (or villainizing her), Lina Khan’s time at the FTC will not only be remembered for years to come in the political realm, but also in the realm of consumer protection, labor, and antitrust law for her and the FTC’s work to protect the American consumer and worker. I firmly believe that Lina Khan should be kept as FTC chair for the next four years.

Whether or not she stays in her position after January 20, 2025, Khan’s legacy will serve as a reminder of the importance of resistance in the face of corporate overreach.