Andrew Ferguson, Chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Pledges to Keep Aggressive Merger Enforcement ⇥ bloomberg.com

Leah Nylen, Bloomberg:

President Donald Trump’s Federal Trade Commission will “vigorously” sue to block illegal mergers, the agency’s new chairman said Monday, highlighting support for the repeated deal challenges during the Biden era.

“We are going to enforce these laws vigorously and aggressively,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in his first public appearance since becoming the agency’s leader last month. If the commission believes that a merger violates the law “you’re going to see us in court and if we think it doesn’t, we’re going to get out of the way.”

The FTC under the first Trump administration launched investigations into tech company acquisitions and sued Facebook. The former decision was made unanimously. The latter was a 3–2 vote, with the Republican chair joining the two Democratic commissioners in favour; the remaining two Republican commissioners voted against it. This suit was dismissed by a judge in 2021, shortly after Lina Khan took over the FTC. Under her watch, the FTC refiled, and will result in Meta facing trial this spring.

I am glad to see the FTC taking a more aggressive posture in antitrust. I hope it is more competent this time. Ferguson’s motivations are a mixed bag, but it makes sense to investigate the activities of some of the most powerful companies in the world.