The Biden administration has fully supported the Department of Justice’s competitive system and the Federal Trade Commission‘s four years of strong regulatory authority. Chairwoman Lina Khan, an vocal critic of budding business monopolies, has been leading the FTC for almost four times. The FTC, under Khan’s authority, has stepped up competitive rules and police, component of a higher level of attention on companies.
Business leaders who have unwillingly dealt with heightened supervision are excited to see how far coming Trump officials limit the federal government’s regulatory stamp now that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is about to begin his second, non-consecutive White House expression.
Given that Trump’s takes are sending mixed messages about how violent his administration will be with regulating sectors, and which ones have the most concerns, is this a question that remains unanswered.
WHO ARE THE NEW PLAYERS ,
Trump has so far announced three significant competitive contenders. Trump tapped Andrew Ferguson for FTC head, Mark Meador to remove Ferguson’s chair as a director on the five-member panel, and Gail Slater to move the DOJ’s competitive department.
Company officials who have been resentful to the FTC’s four years of intense regulation can anticipate leaders who operate with a more traditional knowledge of the company’s responsibilities. However, they don’t expect too severe a shift in the passions of the company.  ,
The fee is republican, split 3-2 with the government’s party controlling the lot. Ferguson has been a majority director since March 2024, and he has the most conventional method to competitive rules of the three nominees for Trump. That is surprising given that Ferguson previously served as the long-time Senate GOP leader and the chief legal counsel to then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA ). Prior to joining Justice Clarence Thomas ‘ Supreme Court, Ferguson served as one.
Ferguson has called Khan “anti-business”, agreeing with many of her reviewers, and just voted against the company’s new garbage fees protection. Due to the regulations, live-event solution buyers are required to include all expenses in the initial costs.  ,
Given that Khan will step down after Jan. 20, which hasn’t been made public however, Meador will take the third conservative seats. Meador has previously worked for the fee and the DOJ’s antitrust department and is very knowledgeable about FTC rules. He loosely favors strong protection, views honed as a policy director to Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and J. D. Vance (R-OH), who is now evil president-elect.
The Meador visit highlights apparently contradictory and yet unrelated approaches to organization regulation. His opinions are in line with a nationalist group of Republicans who rejects all large organizations. Vance’s desire to control Big Tech is well known, and he’s recently complemented Khan’s intense approach to large corporations.
Slater, a second former Vance assistant, is close to the approaching vice president but makes appeals to those on either side of the rules conversation. While she’s expected to go after Big Tech aggressively, evidenced by Trump’s Truth Social announcement in which he accused the industry of “run]ning ] wild” for years, she also has experience arguing against government interference as counsel for the now-defunct Internet Association.  ,
WHAT TO EXPECT FOR REGULATION ,
Under Khan, there have been massive changes to the way the government regulates business activity, particularly regarding mergers and acquisitions. In 2023, the agency reviewed the 2010 guidelines that determine when the FTC can intervene. The revised guidelines forbad merging or acquiring multiple smaller companies, even if each acquisition would not violate the guidelines individually, and lower the threshold required to justify FTC oversight to 30 %.  ,
The action was not well-liked by business leaders.
” Typically, less than 3 % of transactions raise any competitive concerns. The FTC and DOJ’s current leadership have taken every precaution possible to create uncertainty and make the entire merger process more difficult, according to U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley in a statement following the release of the new guidelines.  ,
The organizations “peddle a false narrative about concentration in our economy, are quick to deny the advantages and efficiencies mergers bring to consumers, and ignore the positive effects mergers have on innovation,” Bradley continued.
Ferguson rebuffed Khan, accusing him of not understanding the distinctions between monopoly activity and legal mergers. Ferguson has said he has a “higher threshold” to challenge deals. In a December 2024 memo, Ferguson said he’d repeal “burdensome regulations”. But a full repeal of the guidelines is uncertain.  ,  ,
In Ferguson’s words in June 2024, Ferguson said,” I don’t think we should get into a cycle where we are just rescinding guidelines every time the chairmanship changes hands.”  ,
Under Khan’s leadership, the FTC also changed its interpretation of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Review Act, a 1976 law forbidding completion of certain mergers, acquisitions, and other transactions until they have made a detailed filing with the FTC and DOJ, and waited for those agencies to decide the proposed move does not adversely affect U. S.commerce under federal antitrust laws.
Companies are now required to complete a more thorough premerger filing form according to the law. Businesses have complained that filing for a merger has taken longer than the required week, going from about a week to several months, because these forms, which are intended to give the FTC more insight into whether the move will reduce competitiveness or not, have made the paperwork more difficult. Completing these forms can cost more than$ 2 million.  ,  ,
Despite open criticism, the merger filing form is unlikely to go anywhere, Ferguson and the other Republican commissioner, Melissa Holyoak, approved the initiative when Khan introduced it.  ,
Still, business executives can hope for a repeal of a high-profile FTC move during Khan’s tenure, a ban on noncompete agreements in employment contracts. After the ruling, Ferguson wrote in his dissent that it was the “most extraordinary assertion of authority” in the FTC’s history and was “unlawful”. The FTC in turn appealed the decision in October 2024 after a federal court subsequently prevented the ruling from going into effect. Ferguson may drop the appeal when he takes over as chair.  ,
What they call free speech online is the topic that Trump and his nominees are most interested in pursuing. Ferguson asserted that the Commission must use all of its legal authority to protect the free speech of all Americans and that regulation should be focused on Big Tech monopolies that censor speech. That authority includes the authority to look into collusion that might lead to competition and, in doing so, may lead to online free speech. We ought to conduct such an investigation. And if our investigation reveals anti-competitive cartels that facilitate or promote censorship, we ought to bust them up” . ,
Trump, who sued social media companies during his first term over concerns of anti-conservative censorship, has been a public source of frustration because of this.  ,
” We’re demanding an end to the shadow-banning, a stop to the silencing, and a stop to the blacklisting, banishing, and canceling that you know so well”, Trump said at a news conference after the suit against Facebook and YouTube, along with CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai , and the then-head of Twitter ( before the billionaire Elon Musk bought the social media platform ), Jack Dorsey, was filed in 2021.
WHAT’S COMING FOR ONGOING LAWSUITS ,
Although Ferguson, Meador, and Slater are anticipated to lessen the antitrust enforcement force to create a more favorable environment for mergers and acquisitions, less relaxed oversight of tech companies is not as likely. During Trump’s first administration, the FTC brought many cases against tech companies that are ongoing. Though the president-elect’s allies have evolved to include Musk and Meta founder and primary owner Zuckerberg, he’s promised his pursuit against Big Tech will continue.  ,  ,
The DOJ and FTC have brought a slew of massive lawsuits against tech companies in recent years, including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta, over competition and consumer concerns. Under Trump 1.0, the DOJ’s lawsuit against Google began, but some Republicans worry that the rhetoric that claims Google is a monopoly is too strong. Slater, who will be replacing Biden appointee Jonathan Kantor, has been hailed a” strong candidate to continue]Kantor’s ] work”, and Meador is similarly expected to be a proponent of strong enforcement on Google. Meador, a Utah senator who worked for Lee, proposed a bill that would have ended Google’s ad network. DOJ antitrust authorities have now presented a similar proposal.  ,
Meador is also a proponent of the Robinson-Pact Act, which forbids pricing discrimination to prevent small businesses from having to pay wholesalers higher prices. According to a 2021 Columbia Law Review article edited by Khan herself while she was a Columbia Law School professor, the RPA hasn’t been enforced by the government since the 1980s but could be used in the FTC’s case against Amazon. Khan has recently attempted to revive the RPA.
The FTC contends that Amazon is acting like a monopoly by charging more for sellers who don’t use their Prime fulfillment services and putting the company’s products before independent sellers’.  ,
In July, Meador endorsed reviving the RPA, saying not enforcing it leaves consumers “helpless”. On this, Khan, Meador, and Ferguson agree, though Ferguson is the most restrained in his endorsement. In a dissenting opinion in December, he wrote,” The Commission has not brought a Robinson-Patman Act claim in nearly a quarter century. Because everyone has been adhering to the Act, the government has not failed to uphold it. Instead, it was simply because the government was not concerned with enforcing the law.
” But the Commission must soundly exercise discretion when imposing a law,” he continued.  ,
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In April 2025, the FTC’s case against Meta over its purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp is scheduled to go to trial, and it will serve as a first instance of the agency’s fervor to confront social media giants.  ,
In a letter published in December, Ferguson wrote that” we must vigorously enforce the antitrust laws against any platforms that are found to be unlawfully limiting Americans ‘ ability to exchange ideas freely and openly.”  ,
