FTC Chairman Lina Kern said at the hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation, Data and Commerce entitled “Oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission” at the Rayburn Building on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. testify at the meeting.
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WASHINGTON — Federal Trade Commission Chairman Rina Kern has reportedly refused to withdraw from the agency’s lawsuit against Metaplatform, despite the advice of senior FTC officials. FTC internal document Issuer bloomberg news.
Ethics officials advised Khan to remove himself from a 2022 review of Facebook parent company Meta’s proposed merger with virtual reality fitness service Within Limited to “avoid a sense of unfairness.”
“From a federal ethics standpoint, I have strong objections to Chairman Khan’s participation in this case as an adjudicator. We have repeatedly asked the FTC to block the takeover,” said Loiel Panky. the designated ethics official wrote in an August 2022 memo.
The FTC did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Mr. Panky added that Mr. Khan’s decision to go to trial in the case was “not a violation of federal ethics” per se. Bloomberg reported that the FTC defended Khan’s involvement in the case, and the department’s Democratic majority approved her decision over the opposition of former Republican Commissioner Christine Wilson.
Wilson resigned earlier this year.
Khan perceived to be against Meta acquisition It spurred the company’s request to disqualify her from participating in the lawsuit. FTC Stopped Meta’s plea But a federal judge in February allowed the acquisition to proceed.
The FTC sued the tech company in July 2022 to block the merger of Within Limited. FTC Deputy Director of Competition John Newman accused Meta of “trying to buy its way to the top” through an “illegal takeover.”
in her be against Wilson, who denounced Khan in his resignation letter, argued that in 2017 the FTC chief “clearly stated that meta-trading is illegal” in the decision to withdraw.