President Joe Biden announced Tuesday he will nominate liberal Big Tech critic Jonathan Kanter to lead the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, with expectations Kanter will pursue aggressive enforcement of laws against anti-competitive abuses by the tech giants.
The move signals another blow for Silicon Valley companies — such as Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon — that are under intense bipartisan scrutiny from the government for accusations of monopolistic behavior.
“Monopoly cases are the equivalent of jaywalking. You just don’t see them … So what has gone wrong? How have we lost our way?” Kanter said at a conference convened by Yelp in 2018, where he criticized the lack of meaningful antitrust litigation by the federal government.
Kanter’s nomination is another big step taken by Biden to rein in the Big Tech companies after nominating vocal tech critic Lina Khan to lead the Federal Trade Commission and announcing an executive action earlier this month to foster more competitiveness in the U.S. economy, particularly the tech industry.
As an antitrust lawyer, Kanter has previously represented companies, such as Yelp and Microsoft, that have accused Google of unfair and anti-competitive behavior. He has also worked for a firm representing Amazon, Uber, and Mastercard on antitrust issues.
This background could provide grounds for tech giants such as Google, Amazon, and Uber to ask him to be recused from antitrust cases involving their companies due to conflicts of interest.
Nevertheless, if confirmed by the Senate, Kanter is expected to go after illegal monopolies aggressively and stop anticompetitive mergers, particularly within the tech industry.
There appears to be bipartisan support for Kanter’s nomination, including from his Republican predecessor Makan Delrahim, who led the antitrust division at the Justice Department under President Donald Trump for the past few years.
“I like Jonathan. I actually think he’ll be a great leader for the antitrust division and move antitrust enforcement forward,” Delrahim told the Washington Examiner.
“Both his private sector and government experience will help him run the division successfully. He’s a good guy who has been active in the pro-enforcement wing of antitrust lawyers,” Delrahim added.
Democrats, particularly progressives, also cheered Kanter’s nomination. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said the pick “is tremendous news for workers and consumers.”
“He’s been a leader in the fight to check consolidated corporate power and strengthen competition in our markets,” Warren tweeted on Tuesday.
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Kanter’s confirmation to the post will begin once the White House sends his nomination to the Senate, after which the Judiciary Committee will schedule a confirmation hearing. This is likely to occur in September after the August recess.
