Time to Reconsider Khan FTC Lawsuits
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should review and reconsider the ongoing cases that began during the Biden administration under Chair Lina Khan. Her approach to antitrust law, along with her anti-capitalist and anti-business policies led to her being named Citizens Against Government Waste’s September 2023 and November 2024 Porker of the Month.
The legal quagmire began in July 2021, when during the first meeting after Lina Khan was elevated to become chair, the agency voted along party lines, without any opportunity for public comments, to dismantle the consumer welfare standard. Before that arbitrary and capricious action, the antitrust laws, according to the FTC website, had the same basic objective for more than 100 years: “to protect the process of competition for the benefit of consumers, making sure there are strong incentives for businesses to operate efficiently, keep prices down, and keep quality up.”
The Khan lawsuits included an attempt to force Meta to relinquish its ownership of Instagram, purchased in 2012, and WhatsApp, purchased in 2014. On November 18, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Meta “holds no monopoly in the relevant market.”
The case should cause the FTC to consider how to settle the lawsuit that was filed in September 2023, suit against Amazon, which alleged that the company holds monopoly power in its online superstore market, and online marketplace for services purchased by sellers, causing increased prices for consumers and businesses. But among online retailers, Amazon offers the lowest prices to consumers with a 14 percent average price advantage over its competitors, and was named as America’s second most trusted company in a November 13, 2025, Forbes article.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson could enhance President Trump’s America first, pro-business and pro-taxpayer agenda by forging a settlement with Amazon that would benefit consumers and consider the same result for all remaining Lina Khan lawsuits. That would free the FTC to stop wasting resources and focus on restoring the consumer welfare standard and traditional pro-competitive antitrust policies.
