Senate confirms Jonathan Kanter to steer DOJ Antitrust Division

The Senate voted 68-29 on Tuesday to verify Jonathan Kanter as Assistant Legal professional Normal of the Division of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

Progressives cheered President Joe Biden’s resolution to appoint Kanter, finishing the trifecta of antitrust reformers whose names are printed on coffee mugs. The others are Federal Commerce Fee Chair Lina Khan and Nationwide Financial Council advisor Tim Wu.

Because the DOJ’s new antitrust chief, Kanter will inherit a lawsuit in opposition to Google filed through the Trump administration. Nevertheless it’s unclear if Kanter will recuse himself from the case, given his previous work for Google rivals, together with Yelp and Microsoft.

The DOJ has additionally reportedly seemed into competitors considerations round Apple. Kanter has carried out work for Spotify, which competes with Apple Music.

Kanter informed lawmakers he would seek the advice of with ethics officers on the DOJ about recusal if confirmed. Nonetheless, he can be in place to nominate deputies that would help his antitrust strategy.

Kanter has gained the assist of senators throughout the aisle who’ve argued that too few tech firms management an outsized quantity of energy. A number of Republican senators voted in favor of Kanter’s affirmation, together with Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, rating members on the Judiciary Committee and its antitrust subcommittee, respectively.

His nomination had beforehand superior out of the Judiciary Committee in a voice vote.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was the one member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who requested to be marked as voting in opposition to the development of Kanter’s nomination to the ground. Cornyn mentioned that whereas he shared a few of Kanter’s considerations with the tech business and supported laws to curb the business’s affect, “the DOJ’s Antitrust Division is way broader than simply coping with Huge Tech.”

Cornyn mentioned he is “troubled” by Kanter’s criticism of the buyer welfare customary, the prevalent judicial framework that has guided antitrust rulings for many years, and is hesitant in regards to the “broad customary” he says Kanter favors. Reform-minded antitrust students and practitioners have argued the usual, which regularly appears to be like at whether or not costs go up or down for shoppers, is simply too slim to evaluate trendy market realities, like these created by digital platforms.

Cornyn mentioned Kanter’s openness to using antitrust enforcement to strengthen labor rights, for instance, isn’t applicable for that statute.

“I share Mr. Kanter’s purpose of creating positive that markets do work for the American folks, however I do not assist undercutting necessary antitrust authorized ideas within the service of short-term political targets,” Cornyn mentioned.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., chair of the antitrust subcommittee, responded to Cornyn by pointing to the assist of Kanter by Trump’s antitrust chief Makan Delrahim. Delrahim was one of many 9 former DOJ antitrust chiefs who signed a letter to Judiciary Committee leaders encouraging Kanter’s swift affirmation.

“Total, he’s the place this committee is by way of how we have talked about this,” Klobuchar mentioned of Kanter. “This can be a second the place we are able to unite and get behind a nominee, simply as I received behind Makan Delrahim when Donald Trump nominated him as a result of I understood we needed to transfer ahead, though he may not have been my first alternative for antitrust.”

As soon as Kanter will get began on the Antitrust Division, companies and their legal professionals can be watching carefully for coverage alerts and indications of how he’ll steer the group in keeping with, or otherwise, from Khan’s FTC.

Whereas Khan and Kanter have been equally seen as progressive favorites previous to their nominations, Kanter’s background has put him in shut proximity to the kind of legal professionals who will deliver mergers and competitors considerations earlier than the company. Earlier than leaving to start out his personal legislation follow, he labored for the legislation agency Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Khan, the youngest particular person sworn in to steer the fee at age 32, got here from a educating job at Columbia Regulation Faculty after serving to to write down a report for the Home Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust on competitors in digital markets.