Amazon says it is seeking the recusal of FTC chair Lina Khan from matters related to the company, citing her history of criticism and antitrust arguments
at least in part—meant to deter people who might enter public service from making public statements criticizing unrepentant monopolists. Do not be deterred. https://twitter.com/... April Glaser / @aprilaser : It's only reasonable that someone builds a contemporary analysis of antitrust by examining the market effects of the world's most powerful companies. There's a difference between a honed expertise and unfair bias. Amazon may be conflating the two https://twitter.com/... Mark Hurst / @markhurst : reminds me of the time all the telecoms complained that Ajit Pai had been at Verizon before leading the FCC. oh wait https://twitter.com/... Justin Hendrix / @justinhendrix : In which Amazon wants you to equate years of scholarly inquiry as simple prejudice... https://twitter.com/... Brian Highsmith / @bd_highsmith : As we all know, the ideal regulator is someone who has judiciously structured their life so as to avoid having ever given a moment's thought to the laws that they've been nominated (and confirmed by Congress) to administer—perhaps a newborn child, or the occupants of Plato's cave https://twitter.com/... Ayesha A. Siddiqi / @ayeshaasiddiqi : and doctors shouldn't be allowed to perform surgeries, their history of medical school demonstrates pre existing views on the subject https://twitter.com/... David Dayen / @ddayen : “No fair, Biden said he was going to tax the rich in his campaign platform, he should recuse,” Amazon executives added https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
BloombergDavid McLaughlin
Context & Ripple Effects
Khan became FTC chair after her confirmation as an antitrust expert associated with the “Amazon Antitrust Paradox.” Amazon’s recusal request turns that intellectual record into a procedural challenge to her role in matters involving the company.
The dispute did not remain limited to Amazon: Facebook later made a similar recusal request in an FTC antitrust matter. Later coverage framed Khan’s approach as one that would be tested in court, underscoring how agency leadership and enforcement strategy became intertwined.
First-order effects
Amazon asks the FTC to exclude Chair Lina Khan from company-related deliberations, putting her prior criticism of Amazon at the center of the agency’s handling of its matters.
The request gives Amazon a formal avenue to contest the impartiality of the FTC’s leadership rather than engaging only with the substance of antitrust arguments.
Second-order effects
Facebook’s matching request shows that other major technology companies can adopt recusal arguments when confronting an FTC led by a chair with a public antitrust record.
FTC enforcement involving Amazon and Facebook faces an added procedural front, requiring the agency to defend the participation of the official directing its competition agenda.
Third-order effects
If companies routinely use a regulator’s published scholarship or prior advocacy as grounds for recusal, confirmation fights and enforcement cases become more closely connected.
The episode belongs to a broader contest over whether deep subject-matter expertise qualifies an agency leader to act or creates a basis to challenge their authority.
The trend: Big Tech antitrust disputes are expanding from challenges to enforcement theories into challenges to who may make those enforcement decisions.
Amazon files petition for new FTC chair Lina Khan to recuse herself from any antitrust work on company, saying her past papers on Amazon demonstrate she has “prejudged the outcomes of matters” https://twitter.com/...
One way to view Amazon calling for Lina Khan's recusal is through the lens of PR/optics. Even if the petition goes nowhere, it generates headlines about Khan's alleged anti-Amazon bias, which sets up Amazon to advance the narrative that it's being unfairly targeted. https://twitt…
Barnett was hired by Amazon to help push through the Whole Foods deal...and these people had previously been in charge of antitrust at DoJ!! https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
If you want to lead antitrust litigation against Amazon, then you should ensure you have never spoken publicly about the most meaningful antitrust issue currently facing the economy. https://twitter.com/...
an embarrassingly transparent ploy with zero substantive basis. I'm sure no one involved with filing this is ashamed of it, but they absolutely should be https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Fun fact - this recusal request was written by Thomas Barnett, who ran antitrust for George W. Bush when Amazon/Google began consolidating markets. He now works for Amazon. https://twitter.com/...
Amazon has formally requested that FTC Chair Lina Khan be recused from all Amazon-related cases before the commission, saying her track record advocating tough antitrust enforcement and highlighting issues with Amazon suggest she “has already made up her mind.” https://twitter.co…
.@AMAZON's petition demanding that @linakhanFTC recuse herself from any antitrust investigation into the company is just the latest example of Big Tech trying to defang & discredit efforts by the BIDEN administration & lawmakers to regulate the industry. https://www.nytimes.com/.…
Pretty clear why Amazon would want this. Also pretty clear Biden Administration selected Khan specifically because of her argument for breaking up Amazon. https://twitter.com/...
I don't get this. I'm skeptical of Khan's take on Amazon, but the FTC isn't a court: it's a regulatory agency within the executive branch. The fact that FTC commissioners have particular policy views is part of why presidents appoint them. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
This is the same corporation that attempted to sue the NY Attorney General to prevent her from enforcing NYS laws that protect workers + bullies reporters with misleading “corrections.” That suggests “abusive monopoly” but what do I know, I'm just an organizer who reads the news.…
one of big tech's favorite party tricks is equating all forms of criticism or critical thinking of any kind about their industry with “bias” https://twitter.com/...
Lina Khan's essay on Amazon made her famous. She recently became the FTC's chair and Amazon now wants her excluded from ruling on any antitrust issues involving it https://www.bloomberg.com/... @damclaugh
So predictable. And ridiculous, obviously. Amazon is going to pursue every single angle they can invent to try to dodge scrutiny. https://twitter.com/...
And this thread tells you how hard we have to work to reverse that. Part of the received institutional wisdom of “Law and Economics” is that the establishment was implacably hostile to it so they had to work that much harder, like Alexander Hamilton. https://twitter.com/...
Fascinating to see Amazon move to recuse new FTC Chair Lina Khan for her prior work at Open Markets where she argued Amazon had committed antitrust violations and in the House investigation of Amazon: https://www.wsj.com/...
“We do not think the chair of the FTC should rule on Amazon because she has previously said Amazon is bad” is a really strange take on the purpose of political appointments to regulators. Yes, she's not a fan of Amazon, that is why she was given the job. https://www.bloomberg.com…
Amazon's strategy: Step 1: Blatantly violate anti-trust laws Step 2: Ask anyone who points out your blatant violations to recuse themselves from regulating you because they can't be “impartial” Step 3: Profit https://www.wsj.com/...
evading antitrust actions by becoming so large and unavoidable that everyone in the u.s. is pissed off at you, thereby creating a conflict of interests https://twitter.com/...
Amazon's bogus motion is—at least in part—meant to deter people who might enter public service from making public statements criticizing unrepentant monopolists. Do not be deterred. https://twitter.com/...
It's only reasonable that someone builds a contemporary analysis of antitrust by examining the market effects of the world's most powerful companies. There's a difference between a honed expertise and unfair bias. Amazon may be conflating the two https://twitter.com/...
As we all know, the ideal regulator is someone who has judiciously structured their life so as to avoid having ever given a moment's thought to the laws that they've been nominated (and confirmed by Congress) to administer—perhaps a newborn child, or the occupants of Plato's cave…
and doctors shouldn't be allowed to perform surgeries, their history of medical school demonstrates pre existing views on the subject https://twitter.com/...
It is not a conflict of interest to have seriously and independently considered an issue prior to taking a Senate-confirmed position. Total contempt for democratic bureaucracy by Amazon. https://twitter.com/...
couldn't be clearer how much Biden poked the bear with Khan's appointment as FTC chair. she's been in the role for barely two weeks! https://www.wsj.com/...
This will be intriguing. Biden picked her, in part, because she had an anti-Amazon POV. But how objective can she actually be? And I'm unsure why she wasn't asked about this during the confirmation process. https://twitter.com/...
this is the same game amazon plays with reporters. they argue that experts we include in our stories who are critical of amazon are unfit to comment on the company because of their “bias” as though it's impossible to justify being critical of amazon https://www.cnbc.com/...
it's also part of a playbook that disingenuous companies have successfully deployed at the FTC before (from @LDHerrine's excellent & badly-needed reframing of the kid vid nightmare) https://www.nyulawreview.org/ ... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
I get why they're doing this, but this almost certainly won't work, and only seems to serve to make the company look desperate/petty. https://twitter.com/...
If criticizing Amazon is disqualifying for government positions, we're probably going to have to start staffing statehouses with some of those warehouse robots.
It's only reasonable that someone builds a contemporary analysis of antitrust by examining the market effects of the world's most powerful companies. There's a difference between expertise and understanding of harms and unfair bias. Amazon appears to be conflating the two https:/…
And contrary to Amazon's claims, Khan's work has not been oriented towards criticizing Amazon or alleging guilt, it has been oriented towards understanding why the current interpretation of antitrust laws facilitates the growth of firms like Amazon. It's about the law.
Every FTC Commissioner should absolutely have views about how we enforce and structure antitrust law. That's a job qualification, not an argument for recusals.
Amazon wants FTC Chair Lina Khan to recuse herself from investigations of the company because of her history of criticism of the retailer. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Khan “has on numerous occasions argued that Amazon is guilty of antitrust violations and should be broken up”