From 2010 to 2014, Khan worked at the New America Foundation, where she engaged in anti-monopoly research and writing for Barry Lynn at the Open Markets Program.[9] Lynn was looking for a researcher without a background in economics, and he began critiquing market consolidation with Khan's help.[9]
As a result of her work at the Open Markets Institute, Khan was offered a reporting position at The Wall Street Journal, where she would have covered commodities. During the same period, Khan was offered admission into Yale Law School. Describing it as "a real 'choose the path' moment", Khan ultimately chose to enroll at Yale.[9]
In 2017, during her third year at Yale Law School, the Yale Law Journal published Khan's student article "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox".[14] The article made a significant impact in American legal and business circles, and The New York Times described it as "reframing decades of monopoly law".[7]
In the article, Khan argued that the current American antitrust law framework, which focuses on keeping consumer prices down, cannot account for the anticompetitive effects of platform-based business models such as that of Amazon. The title of Khan's piece was a reference to Robert Bork's 1978 book The Antitrust Paradox, which established the consumer-welfare standard that Khan critiqued.[9] She proposed alternative frameworks for antitrust policy, including "restoring traditional antitrust and competition policy principles or applying common carrier obligations and duties."[14][9]
For "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox", Khan won the Antitrust Writing Award for "Best Academic Unilateral Conduct Article" in 2018,[15] the Israel H. Peres Prize by Yale Law School,[15] and the Michael Egger Prize from the Yale Law Journal.[15]
The article was met with both acclaim and criticism. As of September 2018, it received 146,255 hits, "a runaway best-seller in the world of legal treatises," according to The New York Times.[7]Makan Delrahim, then serving as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division under Donald Trump, praised Khan for her "fresh thinking on how our legal tools apply to new digital platforms".[16]
Joshua Wright, who served on the FTC from 2013 to 2015, derided her work as "hipster antitrust" and argued it "reveal[ed] a profound lack of understanding of the consumer welfare model and the rule of reason framework."[17]Herbert Hovenkamp wrote that Khan's claims are "technically undisciplined, untestable, and even incoherent", and that her work "never explains how a nonmanufacturing retailer such as Amazon could ever recover its investment in below cost pricing by later raising prices, and even disputes that raising prices to higher levels ever needs to be a part of the strategy, thus indicating that it is confusing predation with investment."[18]
After graduating from law school, Khan worked as legal director at the Open Markets Institute. The institute split from New America after Khan and her team criticized Google's market power, prompting pressure from Google, a funder of New America.[19] During her time at OMI, Khan met with Senator Elizabeth Warren to discuss anti-monopolistic policy ideas.[20]
Initially planning to clerk for Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Khan joined Columbia Law School as an academic fellow, where she pursued research and scholarship on antitrust law and competition policy, especially relating to digital platforms.[15][21] She published “The Separation of Platforms and Commerce” in the Columbia Law Review, making the case for structural separations that prohibit dominant intermediaries from entering lines of business that place them in direct competition with the businesses dependent on their networks.[22] In July 2020, Khan joined the school's faculty as an associate professor of law.[23]
Khan has described herself as belonging to the New Brandeis movement, a political movement that seeks a revival in antitrust enforcement.[24]
On March 22, 2021, Joe Biden announced that he was nominating Khan to be a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission to a term ending September 26, 2024.[5][27][28] On June 15, 2021, her nomination was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 69 to 28.[5][29] Khan was confirmed with bipartisan support, mainly attributed to her "influential anti-Amazon views" being widely reflected in Congress.[30] Biden then appointed her chairperson of the FTC.[31] Upon taking office, Khan became the third Asian-American to serve on the FTC, after Dennis Yao (who served from 1991 to 1994) and her former boss Rohit Chopra (who served from 2018 to 2021).[32]
Following her appointment as chairperson, both Amazon[33] and Facebook[34] filed petitions with the FTC seeking her recusal from investigations of the companies, suggesting that her past criticism of the companies left her unable to be impartial. However, according to legal scholar Eleanor Fox, the standard for recusal is very high and unlikely to be met for Khan.[35] Senator Elizabeth Warren and other supporters of Khan argued that the recusal demands amount to an attempt by these companies to intimidate Khan in order to curtail regulatory scrutiny.[36] According to leaked documents, the FTC's Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO), Lorielle Pankey, did not believe Khan had violated any ethical standards,[37] but still recommended that she recuse herself from the case with Meta Platforms to avoid the appearance of bias; this recommendation was rejected by Khan and the FTC.[38] The official who made the recommendation was later revealed to have owned Meta stock at that time, prompting concerns about Pankey's own conduct.[39] In response, Khan and the FTC released a unanimous statement in support of Pankey.[40] Earlier in February 2023, Republican FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson announced her plan to resign from the agency citing her opposition to Khan's leadership, including her refusal to recuse from the FTC lawsuit against Meta.[41] In July 2023, Republicans had her testify before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.[42][43] Democrats on the committee defended Khan and the actions of the agency, arguing that she was taking steps that protected user privacy.[44]
In April 2024, the FTC issued a landmark regulation that banned the enforcement of existing non-compete agreements on employees other than senior executives, and prohibited new non-compete agreements against all categories of employees. The non-compete regulation was struck down in August 2024 by a federal court, which ruled that it was an overreach of statutory authority on the part of the FTC to issue such a regulation and that the regulation was arbitrary and capricious.[45]
Khan has been outspoken about potential perils from business monopolies[46] and expanding anti-trust regulation and enforcement[47] among merger filings, of which only two percent receive added scrutiny.[48] Under Khan's leadership, the FTC voted unanimously, in 2021, to enforce the right to repair as policy and to consider action against companies that limit the type of repair work that can be done at independent repair shops;[49] has pursued lawsuits against companies to lower drug prices,[50] including for insulin[51] and inhalers;[52] and adopted the "click to cancel" rule, in 2024, for consumers to efficiently end subscription services.[53]
Under Khan, the FTC has seen a losing streak in court rulings in its attempts to block mergers and acquisitions. Up to December 2023, the FTC lost every single merger challenge resolved in court, including against Meta, Microsoft, Amgen, and Altria.[54][55][56][57] Khan achieved a rare court victory in blocking Illumina's acquisition of Grail in December, after a 3-year legal battle.[58] In 2024, the FTC lost a merger case against Novant Health.[59] Hedge funds have been able to profit off of betting against the FTC due to its track record of losing cases.[60] Khan's litigation has led to some businesses dropping attempted mergers and acquisitions, such as Nvidia's attempted acquisition of Arm Holdings in 2022.[61][54] Other attempted mergers have also been held up by the FTC's regulatory delays, such as Kroger's attempt to merge with Albertsons.[54]
Under Khan, FTC employees reported sharp declines in metrics such as employee satisfaction and faith in leadership, according to data from the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey conducted by the Office of Personnel Management. Prior to Khan's tenure, the FTC consistently ranked at the top of federal agencies in workplace rankings in both Democratic and Republican administrations. 94.3% of FTC staff had favorable views of senior leadership in 2020, declining to 51.7% in 2021, and to 46.6% in 2022. After Khan's appointment, the FTC switched from ranking first in favorable views of senior leadership among federal agencies to first in unfavorable views.[62][63][64][65]
FTC officials have attributed employee dissatisfaction under Khan to a lack of a clear strategy on achieving objectives, a lack of knowledge on agency operations, and disrespect and sidelining of career staff. FTC staff have questioned her approach to litigation, noting losses in court in cases against Meta and Microsoft. Lawyers have expressed frustration at operationalizing Khan's approach in courts, criticizing the subjective rhetoric used to justify cases against companies. One of Khan's first acts at the FTC, a ban on public speaking for FTC staff, was widely unpopular with employees and retracted in 2022 with an apology.[65][66][67]
In November 2023, morale and satisfaction was reported as improving from 2022, although below 2020 levels, with results from the 2023 annual workplace survey cited.[68]
Khan's practices at the FTC have been met with bipartisan praise as well as some criticism. Ankush Khadori of New York wrote in December 2023 that failed lawsuits against Meta and Microsoft led to reduced morale and high attrition among FTC employees.[65] However, Khan has gained praise for her tactics from members of both the Democratic and Republican parties. Republican Senator and 2024 Republican Vice Presidential nominee,JD Vance from Ohio cited Khan's campaigns against large technology companies as a success for antitrust efforts in the US, beliefs echoed by former Democratic representative David Cicilline, who expressed his confidence that Khan would ultimately prevail against large companies.[76][77] Former colleague Matt Stoller described Khan as the best chair the FTC has ever had.[61]
Khan was born in London to Pakistani parents who immigrated to the United States in 2000.[7] She is married to Shah Rukh Ali, a cardiologist at Columbia University in Manhattan.[7] In January 2023, Khan gave birth to her first child.[78]
Vaheesan, Sandeep; Khan, Lina (Spring 2017). "Market Power and Inequality: The Antitrust Counterrevolution and Its Discontents". Harvard Law & Policy Review. 11 (1): 235–294.
Pozen, David E.; Khan, Lina (December 2019). "A Skeptical View of Information Fiduciaries". Harvard Law Review. 133 (2): 497–541.
^Eidelson, Josh; Chafkin, Max (October 10, 2024) [22 October 2024]. "Lina Khan Is Just Getting Started (She Hopes)". Bloomberg. Retrieved November 4, 2024. (She'd grown up in London and the New York suburbs; her parents, British citizens of Pakistani origin, moved to the US when she was 11.)
^Stoller, Matt (October 18, 2023). "Where Is the Republican Lina Khan?". Compact. Archived from the original on September 12, 2024. Retrieved November 5, 2024. The fact that Khan is a Democrat in a Democratic administration
^"Lina M. Khan Sworn in as Chair of the FTC". Federal Trade Commission (Press release). June 15, 2021. Archived from the original on August 12, 2024. Retrieved November 5, 2024. Lina M. Khan was sworn in today as Chair of the Federal Trade Commission. President Biden named Khan, a Democrat, to a term on the Commission that expires September 25, 2024, and designated her as Chair. Khan was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 15, 2021.