Lina Khan May Be Gone, But Big Tech is Still in the FTC’s Crosshairs

Throwing your fists in the air and screaming “Fergusoooooon” is not quite as much fun as yelling “Khaaaaaaaan,” now is it? Nevertheless, Big Tech has plenty of reasons to curse the name of President Trump’s Federal Trade Commission chair, Andrew Ferguson, as loudly as it did his predecessor, Lina Khan.

Last week, the trustbusting agency moved forward with two pending cases from the Khan era — one against Amazon and another against Microsoft — signaling that tough antitrust regulation may not lighten up in the Trump 2.0 era after all.

Who You Gonna Call?

Whether Ferguson would continue Khan’s era of strict antitrust enforcement had been something of an open question. But now it’s clear that Big Tech will remain in the FTC’s crosshairs — though there are signs of some debate within the agency:

• According to a Bloomberg report last week, Ferguson’s FTC has continued investigative work on a wide-ranging probe into Microsoft launched by Khan in the waning days of the Biden administration. That investigation seeks to find out whether Microsoft abused its market power across its AI and data center operations as well as in software licensing practices.
• The agency also briefly asked a federal judge last week to delay trial in its case alleging Amazon Prime engaged in deceptive practices against subscribers, citing a resources shortfall following DOGE-ordered spending cuts — only to quickly rescind the request, saying the agency has enough resources to meet its deadlines after all. Which means it still plans to take Amazon to trial on September 22, and is also on track for an October 2026 trial in a case alleging antitrust violations in Amazon’s retail business.

For those keeping score at home: The agency may have been slightly battered by Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts, but it is backing Musk in his fight to stop OpenAI from reorganizing as a more traditional for-profit enterprise. In January, before Trump returned to the White House, Ferguson bolstered the agency’s move to support Musk. Microsoft, for its part, seems to be preparing to part ways with its quasi-subsidiary OpenAI, potentially in light of the FTC’s antitrust scrutiny. Earlier this month, The Information reported that the company was developing its own AI reasoning models to directly compete with OpenAI. 

So Shiny, So Chrome: Elsewhere in Washington, the FTC’s trustbusting partners at the Department of Justice appear similarly focused on a Big Tech crackdown. Last week, the Senate confirmed Trump nominee and longtime Big Tech critic Gail Slater to lead the DoJ’s antitrust division. Two weeks ago, the agency reaffirmed its Biden-era mission to break up Google, saying in filings that it is still asking the court to force the company to divest its Chrome browser — and possibly its Android division — after winning a suit last year claiming the tech giant maintained an illegal monopoly in the search business.