Lina Khan, the 35-year-old chairman of the US Federal Trade Commission, is the youngest person ever to hold the position. Known for his efforts to modernize antitrust practice, Khan has led numerous antitrust investigations into Big Tech companies such as Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon, Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META). He opens up the idea that large investments, such as Microsoft's $14 billion partnership with OpenAI, could serve as a strategy for companies to achieve market dominance like traditional acquisitions. But with only a few weeks left in his tenure under the Biden administration, the fate of several Big Tech antitrust cases now hangs in the air.
President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he will replace Khan with Andrew Ferguson, the FTC commissioner who served under Khan. Although Ferguson has disagreed with Khan on policy decisions, including his ban on non-compete clauses, he seems to share his general view of Big Tech's dominance. “We will end Big Tech's vendetta against competition and free speech,” Ferguson wrote in an X post yesterday (Dec. 10) following Trump's announcement.
The FTC's investigation does not constitute a formal lawsuit against the company. Even if the probe reaches the suit, it could take months, or years, before it goes to trial. And at any moment, the new FTC chair could pull the plug.
The FTC shares antitrust responsibilities with the Department of Justice. These two agencies often coordinate to avoid conflicts in their investigations. For example, in June, the FTC and DOJ split oversight of AI, with the FTC overseeing Microsoft and OpenAI and the DOJ focusing on Nvidia.
As time passes, Khan must convince federal judges and the new president that the FTC's investigation into America's biggest companies is important and in the best interest of American consumers.
Here's where the conditions stand now:
Microsoft is under an extensive fact-finding investigation
On November 27, the FTC launched a wide-ranging investigation into Microsoft, requesting information about the company's cloud computing business, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity offerings and everything in between. The renewed interest in Microsoft may have come after the CrowdStrike crash on Microsoft Windows systems earlier this year, which highlighted the global dependence on a few highly concentrated technology companies. Part of the FTC's latest investigation focuses on Microsoft's security software, Entra ID.
The FTC's effort to bring Microsoft back inside has so far been unsuccessful. Last year, a federal agency failed in an attempt to block Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard ( ATVI ).
In April, the Observer reported potential conflicts of interest that some members of Microsoft's top leadership team may have with competitors. For example, Disney CFO Hugh Johnston sits on Microsoft's board, despite Disney's games business being in direct competition with Activision Blizzard. Microsoft president Brad Smith serves on the board of Netflix, whose AI and gaming business competes with Microsoft. Microsoft's board also includes Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf, who chose to partner with Microsoft rival Google ( GOOGL ) to create an AI banking service called Fargo. Such corporate board overlap has been a point of scrutiny for both the FTC and the DOJ.
The alphabet faces an assessment of Anthropic investment and potential fragmentation
In January, the FTC launched an investigation into Alphabet for information about its investments in AI startups. The agency cited Google's announcement of a $2 billion investment in Anthropic, a high-flying AI startup founded by former OpenAI executives. “Our research will clarify that investments and partnerships driven by dominant companies are at risk of distorting innovation and undermining fair competition,” Khan said in a statement.
In August, the DOJ won a suit targeting Google's internet search business. The judge ruled that, because Google has virtually no competitors in text-based Internet search, the company was able to raise the price of ads on Google Search “without a reasonable impediment to competition.”
Now, the DOJ is pressuring Google to sell Chrome, the world's most popular web browser. If approved (which analysts find unlikely) it would be the first major breakup of a technology company since AT&T split in 1982.
Amazon is set for an antitrust audit in 2026
In September 2023, the FTC and 17 federal attorneys general sued Amazon for allegedly maintaining a monopoly on online sales. The FTC says Amazon dominates more than 60 percent of the online grocery market. Key issues included Amazon's “Buy the Box” feature, which prioritizes sellers who offer competitive prices and penalizes those with lower prices on rival platforms. The FTC also accused Amazon of pressuring sellers to use its fulfillment services for better market visibility.
A year later, Amazon won a partial dismissal of some of the FTC's claims. But a federal judge allowed the FTC to continue pursuing other claims. Because the partial dismissal decision was sealed, it is not publicly known which claims were withdrawn and which will be prosecuted. The antitrust case will be heard in October 2026.
Amazon is also under investigation for its multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic as part of a similar FTC investigation into Alphabet.
Meta is set for an antitrust audit in four months
In December 2020, the FTC and 48 attorney generals sued Meta for violating antitrust laws following a lengthy investigation into its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. The case was initially dismissed in June 2021 due to lack of evidence. Khan, who took over the reins of the FTC the same month, restructured the case and filed an amended complaint with the court in August 2021. Last month, a federal judge ruled that the case could not go to trial, marking Khan's victory. The trial is scheduled for April 2025.
The case will likely enter the next phase under a new FTC chairman, especially because the original case was brought by Republican-appointed FTC chairman Joseph Simons, who defended the case against collusion.
