Cleaning Up After Lina Khan

Will the Trump FTC pursue Biden cases it is likely to lose in court?

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"Amazon accounts for 4% of all retail sales. It has also been losing ground to Walmart, which has sought to imitate its business model, including its so-called “buy box.” The FTC claims that this box, which highlights the best offer on its marketplace for a product, is anti-competitive."

"Judge Chun has rejected antitrust claims brought by consumers that are similar to the FTC’s. Why is the agency wasting finite resources pursuing a case it appears unlikely to win?"

"Big Tech giants face increasing competition, especially amid the boom in artificial intelligence, yet regulators can’t seem to figure out who’s the real monopolist. Bloomberg News has reported that the FTC under Ms. Khan launched a sprawling investigation into Microsoft, Amazon’s biggest cloud competitor."

"The FTC is reportedly scrutinizing Microsoft’s stake in OpenAI and whether it steers profits from other parts of its business into AI. The latter is known as cross-subsidization, and most companies do it."

"the Justice Department is also seeking in a different lawsuit to make it harder for Google to compete in AI with OpenAI and Microsoft."