Have you ever been stuck with a subscription you just can’t seem to cancel? Or how about buying tickets online that nearly double in price at checkout? (Yes, we’re looking at you, Ticketmaster.)
We’ve all been there. But thanks to the work of the current Federal Trade Commission (FTC), those days will soon be coming to an end with initiatives like “click to cancel” and policies cracking down on pesky “junk fees.”
As the final days of the Biden Administration come to an end, outgoing FTC Chair Lina Khan reflects on some of the agency’s biggest accomplishments and the legacy she will be leaving behind. “I think our record speaks for itself. I think all of the ways that we are delivering enormous benefits for the American people speaks for itself, and I'm just enormously proud of the just win after win that we've been able to deliver for the American people,” she tells Mehdi.
Khan, who was just 32 when she was appointed to her post in 2021, has been able to unite Americans across political lines for the FTC’s anti-monopoly work and has produced populist policies that the Biden administration can be proud of.
As she explains to Mehdi, “One of the original insights underlying the antitrust laws and the anti-monopoly tradition in America was a recognition that deep concentrations of economic power would be dangerous for the American people. It would undermine their economic freedoms, but it could also pose political dangers.”
And as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg cozy up to Trump, Khan warns, “extreme concentration of economic power can buy you political power…”
Khan also talked about how the FTC’s wins during her tenure are “durable” and could outlast the Trump administration’s policies. To find out why, and more about her own plans after January 20, then please do watch the discussion above.
Paid subscribers can watch in full while free subscribers can catch the first two minutes of the conversation.
