Thread by @matthewstoller

Nominating hearing for (among others) Biden antitrust pick Jonathan Kanter. judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/09/29…

Also a hearing for Lucy Koh to be on the ninth circuit. Koh is great on antitrust.

Now Tom Cotton is pressing Koh about FTC vs Qualcomm, and attacking her decision finding that Qualcomm was a monopoly. Koh responds by justifying her decision on standard essential patent licensing. Her decision was 100% correct, the ninth circuit was wrong to overturn her.

Biden's antitrust pick - Jonathan Kanter - is now up. judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/09/29…

Grassley is asking about concentration in the meatpacking industry and pushes on packers and stockyard's act. Kanter calls the problem a "high priority" and calls "vigorous antitrust enforcement" in agriculture.

Republican Senator Grassley now presses on pharmaceutical prices and anti-competitive practices. Kanter says the antitrust laws play an important role so far.

So far this hearing is a love story between Kanter and Grassley.

Senator Klobuchar asks Kanter whether the antitrust division needs more money. He says yes.

This is not a rough hearing so far.

Klobuchar says the AT&T-T-Mobile merger shouldn't have been allowed even with the settlement and presses Kanter on settlements in general.

Kanter says that remedies "have to work. If they don't work then you still have a violation of the law."

Lee is saying that in the first nine months of this administration, there are disturbing trends around antitrust. FTC withdrew vertical merger guidelines, but the DOJ didn't. Says FTC is asking about ESG policies of merging parties. I don't think that's true.

Now Lee is asking Kanter about the consumer welfare standard. Can't it be more flexible than it is commonly applied? Kanter says yes. Now there's a back and forth on economics.

Senator Lee is asking about political values in antitrust, and Kanter says antitrust laws are about protecting competition and the competitive process.

Senator Blumenthal asks about interoperability, and now Senator Tillis presses him on standard essential patents and non-discriminatory treatment in antitrust law. This one's a very nerdy but huge area. Tillis also says he'll support Kanter.

California Senator Padilla is talking about labor exploitation, noncompetes and labor markets. Kanter pledges strong enforcement here. I'm getting ready for a big tech friendly line of questioning soon.

Senator Marsha Blackburn asks Jonathan Kanter about the consumer welfare standard in technology. "Antitrust laws have to reflect market realities, and market realities have shifted dramatically."

And the hearing is adjourned. Seems like Kanter will sail through.

This was the most interesting nugget from @SenMikeLee. I find it hard to imagine the FTC asks about social policies in merger investigations unless there's direct relevance to competition.

https://twitter.com/MaxwellAFillion/status/1445796029228466182