2023-07-13 15:37:07
The Federal Trade Commission, chaired by Lina Khan, is appealing a judge’s decision allowing Microsoft to acquire Activision for $69 billion.
Lina Khan has definitely opened hostilities once morest the tech giants. The president of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) intends to more aggressively control mergers, in particular those carried out by the largest technology platforms.
In his sights: Microsoft, which has just received authorization of a California federal judge for pursue its acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard for $69 billion and create a gaming juggernaut.
Her article accusing tech behemoths like Amazon of taking advantage of US antitrust leniency went viral eight years ago when she was still a law student at Yale.
The competition authority intends to pull the rug out from under the IT specialist by making appeal of this decision. Lina Khan will be heard on this subject before a committee of the House of Representatives this Thursday followingnoon.
It’s regarding a race once morest time for the president of the FTC, who wants to block this merger before the July 18 deadline. An almost impossible mission, at first and even second sight. Lina Khan is simply throwing her last strength into her fight once morest Big Tech, whose the outcome seems very unfavorable to him.
The FTC has also launched an investigation once morest the OpenAI startup’s ChatGPT robot, supported by Microsoft, on the possible damage suffered by consumers. Lina Khan has previously raised concerns regarding AI, saying law enforcement “needs to be vigilant early on” with transformative tools such as artificial intelligence.
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Defender of a fair market
Lina Khan’s combativeness dates back to adolescence, when at 15 she wrote an inflammatory article once morest Starbucks to criticize a cafe near his New York high school’s decision to ban rowdy kids.
This American from London and a Pakistani family will not be angry: her article accusing tech behemoths, such as Amazon, of take advantage of US antitrust leniency went viral eight years ago when she was still a law student at Yale. She demanded a firmer policy to break monopolies, as at the beginning of the last century. This is how it becomes the nemesis of the big web companies in the United States.
By authorizing the acquisition of Activision by Microsoft, the American justice considered that the FTC had not demonstrated that the Redmond firm would eliminate the competition.
Big Tech too strong for Lina Khan?
In this crusade once morest Microsoft, critics of Lina Khan point out that the FTC may have much more to lose than to gain: an iron lady reputation that falters like a house of cards in the face of the almighty power of Big Tech. Because, by authorizing the redemption, the American justice considered that the FTC had not shown that the Redmond firm would eliminate the competition. Microsoft would also have agreed to make “Call of Duty”, the hit from Activision, more accessible.
For her part, Lina Khan hoped to win this battle to lead by example with a clear message: competition laws must be adapted to the digital age to avoid at all costs that too powerful a player acts on the market. But Big Tech may already be too strong for Lina Khan to resist.
CV Express
Born in London in 1989. In 2017, she won a PhD at Yale.That year, she published in the Yale Law Journal The “Amazon Antitrust Paradox”.At the end of her studies, she took the legal policy department from the Open Markets Institute, a think tank. In 2018, she became member of the legal office of the FTC.In 2020, she joined the Faculty of Law of Columbia as a teacher. On March 8, 2021, President Joe Biden proposes it in place of President of the FTC.
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