FTC’s Amazon Suit Opens Door to Arbitrary State Action Against Private Sector, Experts Say

If FTC Chair Lina Khan succeeds, ’she will have enacted a new progressive paradigm in antitrust in which anyone can be sued for anything,' says Robert Bork Jr.

Lina Khan, then-nominee for Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), speaks during a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on April 21, 2021. Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner via AP

News Analysis

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust case against Amazon, filed on Sept. 26, is in many ways a departure from accepted antitrust case law and raises a number of questions such as why Amazon is the target and what FTC Chair Lina Khan seeks to achieve with her suit.