Chair Scott Brown: “It remains very concerning that Chair Khan and Assistant Attorney General Kanter continue to work so closely with anti-growth European regulators…”
WASHINGTON – This week, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan and Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter are scheduled to participate in a conference titled “Antitrust, Regulation, and the Next World Order,” hosted by the left-leaning Capitol Forum and European antitrust advocate Cristina Caffarra.
The conference arrives on the heels of the abandoned iRobot-Amazon acquisition due to “no path to regulatory approval in the European Union,” and resulted in over 300 American jobs lost. EU regulators admitted that they were “in close contact with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission,” throughout their investigation.
“It remains very concerning that Chair Khan and Assistant Attorney General Kanter continue to work so closely with anti-growth European regulators. They have sent staff to European competition agencies to ‘coordinate’ enforcement tactics and made multiple trips across the Atlantic to meet with their compatriots and speak at conferences, all of which can be done virtually to save taxpayer money, not to mention carbon emissions,” said Competitiveness Coalition Chair Scott Brown, a former Senator and Ambassador. “The Competitiveness Coalition has filed public records requests to determine just how much taxpayer money has been spent sending FTC officials on European boondoggles, and we look forward to receiving the information shortly.”
In July 2023, the Competitiveness Coalition filed a records request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding the FTC’s involvement with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark protectionist legislation by the EU. The request was sent in response to public reports that the FTC and DOJ dispatched respective taxpayer-funded agency officials to Brussels to help with implementation of EU antitrust law.
Since 2022, the Competitiveness Coalition has been sounding the alarm on the FTC’s and DOJ’s egregious overreach and concerning actions. To learn more about the Coalition’s work on this front, please visit www.competitivenesscoalition.com.
Members of the press can contact the coalition at press@competitivenesscoalition.com.
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The Competitiveness Coalition is a first-of-its-kind group educating the public and advocating for policies that put consumers first while fostering innovation and attracting new investment.