After Amazon, Facebook is also launching an attack on the new head of the US competition watchdog FTC. Like the world’s largest internet retailer, the online network wants to achieve that itself Lina Khan (32) keeps out of the investigation of its market position. Earlier statements and texts by Khan showed that she was biased, argued Facebook in a motion filed on Wednesday. You have already committed to the view that Facebook violates competition law.
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The advance of Facebook comes at an important moment: The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has to decide by the end of the month whether to resubmit a competition lawsuit against the online network or to abandon it. A judge had dismissed the first complaint because the FTC had insufficiently substantiated their allegations. But he left the way open for a new attempt with more arguments.
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The lawsuit was still in the President’s days in December Donald Trump (75) submitted by Khan’s predecessor. Without her vote, a failure of the new edition would be very likely: In the five-member commission, the two members of the Republican Party camp had already voted against it last year.
The FTC is responsible for consumer protection in the United States and also conducts competition investigations. The 32-year-old Khan drew attention to herself a few years ago with a paper on Amazon in which she argued that common US approaches to assessing the competitive situation with regard to Internet companies failed.
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The crucial question in such proceedings is often whether consumers would be disadvantaged by higher prices. However, Khan criticized that that was not enough. Because a company like Amazon can gain considerable control over various sectors of the economy, while customers on the surface benefit from low prices, she argued.
Facebook now referred, among other things, to Khan’s work for the Open Markets Institute organization, during which she accused the online network of competition violations.
Khan’s recent appointment as FTC chief was seen as a signal that US President Joe Biden (78) is concerned about the market power of large tech companies and wants to counter this. Biden instructed his government last week to work out new restrictions on takeovers by large companies in all industries.
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