Trump picks Andrew Ferguson as his nominee to chair the Federal Trade Commission

Trump picks Andrew Ferguson as his nominee to chair the Federal Trade Commission



CNN

President-elect Donald Trump has selected Andrew Ferguson as his nominee to chair the Federal Trade Commission.

“Andrew has a proven track record of standing up to Big Tech’s censorship and protecting free speech across our great country,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.

Ferguson is a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission and, according to his biography, he once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Trump also said he was selecting Mark Meador as his nominee for FTC commissioner.

“Mark has also worked as an antitrust officer at both the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, as well as in private practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP,” Trump said in the post.

Trump’s re-election has raised questions about how his administration will handle ongoing antitrust cases against tech giants like Apple and Amazon. Google is also awaiting a decision on whether a federal judge will accept the U.S. government’s recommendation to force the company to sell Chrome after declaring its search business a monopoly.

The new administration could also dismiss any ongoing FTC investigations.

Ferguson praised last week

Lina Khan, the current head of the FTC, has overseen failed multibillion-dollar mergers, drawing the ire of Wall Street.

Working with the Justice Department’s antitrust division, the FTC under Khan has blocked dozens of deals because it fears that greater consolidation is undermining competition and making it easier for companies to drive up prices and exploit their workers. That was the logic behind the FTC’s lawsuit to stop the $25 billion mega-merger of grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons earlier this year — which a federal judge blocked just Tuesday. Similarly, the FTC has targeted Big Tech, Big Pharma, and even Big Mattress in the name of maintaining strong competition.

While Trump was expected to replace Khan, some Republicans – including some who were tapped to join the Trump administration – were dubbed “Khan conservatives” for calling for tougher, not weaker, antitrust controls.

In February, Vice President-elect JD Vance said Khan was “one of the few people in the Biden administration who I think is doing a pretty good job.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Brian Fung, Matt Egan, Luciana Lopez and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.

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