As Lina Khan’s tenure as FTC Chair winds down, let’s take a last look at her court record on mergers.

Under Khan, the Biden FTC has an overall merger litigation win percentage of *93.75%*

Data and methodology thread below 1/5 Litigations included.
2/5

The FTC just announced it’s suing the largest distributor of booze for violating the Robinson-Patman Act.

There is a lot of confusion about RPA, so I’m going to explain RPA using a simple, common-sense formula: Enforcement = Choice = Lower prices
🧵
ftc.gov/news-events/ne… What is RPA? It’s simple: the law says no company should get secret deals or special discounts that aren’t available to other companies.

It was used from 1936 until the 80s when some unelected bureaucrats decided they didn’t want to enforce it anymore.
subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2022/0…

The FTC just released an interim report on pharmacy benefit managers, the dominant middlemen who hike the cost of prescriptions, including overcharging patients for cancer drugs. 1/13

https://twitter.com/FTC/status/1810658079320498183

PBMs are highly concentrated and vertically integrated across the pharma supply chain. The below image shows their corporate structures, and the percentages of prescriptions filled in the US. 2/13

The FTC filed a redacted complaint in the Exxon/Pioneer deal, which you can see at the below link.

It includes serious allegation of collusion to raise prices on Americans at the gas pump in order to pad the profits of fossil fuel companies. 🧵1/4

ftc.gov/system/files/f… Former Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield would often publicly signal to American producers that they should hold back pumping more oil and gas in order to keep prices high.

But the FTC alleges he also conducted a private campaign directly with OPEC officials. 2/4

In an interview on @SquawkCNBC this morning FTC Chair Lina Khan was asked about the 1900 employees fired by Microsoft following their merger with Activision Blizzard... 🧵1/9

cnbc.com/2024/01/29/cnb…
These layoffs shouldn't surprise anyone. Even when workers are unionized, these mega mergers often lead to mass layoffs. But let's talk about why Chair Khan correctly said that these layoffs aren't just, "bad for workers, but also bad for consumers and the market as a whole." 2/9

Last month, the FTC warned pharma companies for using improper patents to block generics from the market for products like asthma inhalers—competition that could lower drug prices for Americans who need these meds. They had 30 days to respond... 1/6

nytimes.com/2023/09/14/bus… Inhalers have been on the market for decades, but they still cost hundreds of dollars a month due to a lack of competition. Generic asthma/COPD inhalers only have a 53% generics utilization rate (Gx). Compare that to the Gx and cost of antihyperlipidemics (cholesterol pills) 2/6

Today @FortuneMagazine published an inaccurate piece about the FTC in which @JeffSonnenfeld and his co-author allege that FTC Chair Khan has a "zero-win record" in court. This is completely wrong, but a great chance to clarify the facts with a thread 🧵1/9 Since Khan became Chair, the FTC has taken action against 39 mergers (11 of which were challenged). The result?

19 abandons (14 mid-investigation/5 post-complaint)
16 consent orders (14 divestitures)
3 in ongoing litigation
1 loss

2/9

cnbc.com/2023/11/29/ftc…

🧵Thanks to FTC staff, previously redacted info on why Amazon is an illegal monopolist is now out! Here’s some of what’s new in a big thread 👇🏻 1/15 Amazon pursues a pay-to-play scheme forcing sellers to buy ads. Worse, many of these ads are junk ads that aren’t relevant to what users search for. Jeff Bezos and co. call these Junk Ads “defects,” and sellers pay big bucks for them. 2/15

The WSJ Editorial Board has published 63(!) pieces about FTC Chair Lina Khan since June 2021. That’s one every 11 days.

But, why? A thread! 🧵(1/8)

economicliberties.us/the-wall-stree… There are likely several reasons, but the one that sticks out is their fear of the growing bipartisan consensus on the need for robust antitrust enforcement. 2/8

Let’s clear up some misunderstandings about why the FTC would ask a company like Twitter for information under a “consent order” (and what a consent order even is!). 🧵 1/11 Consent orders are agreements between the FTC and companies that allow the Commission to collect information on matters covered in the orders, which often relate to what companies do with your data. 2/11

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consent_d…