President-elect Donald Trump has named Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Andrew Ferguson as his choice for FTC chair on Tuesday, potentially reshaping the agency’s approach to tech regulation and antitrust enforcement.
What Happened: Ferguson, who joined the FTC in April and previously served as Virginia’s solicitor-general and chief counsel to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, would replace current Chair Lina Khan.
Ferguson, responding to Trump’s announcement on X, pledged to “end Big Tech’s vendetta against competition and free speech” while promoting innovation. This stance suggests a potential shift from Khan’s aggressive enforcement approach, though Trump’s attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz has previously supported Khan’s tech industry lawsuits.
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Why It Matters: Under Khan’s leadership, the federal firm has aggressively targeted tech giants including Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, Meta Platforms Inc. META, and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG, though it notably lost its bid to block Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition in 2022.
The announcement comes as the FTC pursues major antitrust investigations, including a reported probe into Microsoft Corp. MSFT over alleged anti-competitive practices in its cloud computing business.
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