Christine Wilson, Sole Republican FTC Commissioner, Will Step Down

Christine Wilson, the only Republican commissioner at the FTC, criticized Lina Khan, the agency's Democratic chairwoman, accusing her of "abuse to be able to".

WASHINGTON — Christine Wilson, the only Republican commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, said Tuesday she would resign soon and slammed Lina Khan, the Democratic chairman of the agency, accusing him of "abuse of power".

Mrs. Wilson, who announced her decision in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, has consistently criticized Ms Khan's leadership. Ms. Khan, who became president of the F.T.C. in June 2021, immediately set out to aggressively transform the agency into a bulwark against tech mergers and monopolies and a more powerful regulator of online privacy.

Mrs. Wilson and another Republican former F.T.C. member, Noah Phillips, who resigned in October, have repeatedly expressed concern that Ms. Khan's ambitions go beyond the legal authority of the law enforcement agency. on consumer protection and competition.

In particular, Ms. Wilson criticized a lawsuit that the F.T.C. filed in July to block Meta's merger with virtual reality app maker, Within, as well as a decision last month to ban "non-compete" clauses in employment contracts that limit employees' options. employees while blocking the power of corporations to retain workers. /p>

Mrs. Wilson is a longtime antitrust attorney and was appointed to the F.T.C. by President Donald J. Trump in 2018. The F.T.C. has five commissioners.

"My fundamental concern with his leadership of the commission is his willful disregard for congressional limits on the agency's jurisdiction, his disregard for legal precedents and its abuse of authority to achieve the desired results,” Ms. Wilson wrote of Ms. Khan.

Ms. Khan said in a joint statement with two F.T.C. Democrats Commissioners, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, "While we often disagree with Commissioner Wilson, we respect her dedication to her beliefs and are grateful for her public service."

Ms. Wilson's departure is expected to put greater political pressure on the agency, which Republican lawmakers and businesses have criticized for being too tough on business. Congress controls agency budgets and can threaten to limit the powers of the F.T.C. through its funding power. He can also call Ms. Khan to appear in public surveillance hearings.

Ms. Khan defended his actions, saying the agency's permissive approach to mergers over decades has allowed companies like Google, Meta and Amazon to inflate their size and eat up the competition. She pushed the agency to take on riskier cases that she might not even win.

President Biden named Ms Khan as head of the F.T.C. as part of a group of progressive antitrust reformers that included Tim Wu in the White House and Jonathan Kanter, the antitrust chief at the Justice Department. Ms Khan is overseeing the lawsuits against Meta and a lawsuit to block Microsoft's merger with Activision.

Mrs. Khan, 33, shot to fame in 2017 when she published an article in the Yale Law Journal on Amazon, challenging decades-old views about illegal monopolization and how antitrust laws were applied to tech companies. . She continued to attract attention with her participation in a Congressional report in 2020 that called for the breakup of tech monopolies.

Ms. Wilson and companies like Meta and Amazon have asked Ms Khan to recuse herself from investigations and cases involving them. They said given Ms Khan's early opinions of the companies, she could not fairly assess cases involving them. Ms Khan did not go out of business...