The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction over federal civil antitrust law enforcement with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The agency is headquartered in the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington,DC.
TimothyShiou-Ming Wu is a Taiwanese-American legal scholar who served as Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy at the United States from 2021 to 2023. He is also a professor of law at Columbia University and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. He is known legally and academically for significant contributions to antitrust and communications policy,coining the phrase "network neutrality" in his 2003 law journal article,Network Neutrality,Broadband Discrimination. In the late 2010s,Wu was a leading advocate for an antitrust lawsuit directed at the breakup of Facebook.
Christine A. Varney is an American antitrust attorney who served as the U.S. assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division for the Obama Administration and as a Federal Trade commissioner in the Clinton Administration. Since August 2011,Varney has been a partner of the New York law firm Cravath,Swaine &Moore,where she chairs the antitrust department.
Jonathan David Leibowitz is an American attorney who served under President Barack Obama as Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2009 to 2013. Leibowitz was appointed to the commission in 2004,and resigned in 2013. During Leibowitz's tenure,the FTC brought privacy cases against Google,Facebook and others for violating consumer privacy,as well as enforcement against "pay-for-delay" deals in which pharmaceutical companies paid competitors to stay out of the market. Prior to joining the FTC,Leibowitz was Vice President for Congressional Affairs from 2000 to 2004 of the MPAA.
William Evan Kovacic is an American legal scholar who served as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2006 to 2011,including as its chairman from 2008 to 2009. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Pamela LeDeyce Jones Harbour is an American lawyer who served as a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2003 to 2009. As of 2021,Harbour is one of just three African-Americans to have served as a member of the FTC. Additionally,she is one of the just three political independents to serve on the body as of 2017.
Julie Simone Brill is an American lawyer who serves as Chief Privacy Officer and Corporate Vice President for Global Privacy,Safety and Regulatory Affairs at Microsoft. Prior to her role at Microsoft,Brill was nominated by President Barack Obama on November 16,2009,and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate to serve as Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission on March 3,2010. Brill served as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2010 to 2016.
Hogan Lovells is an American-British law firm co-headquartered in London and Washington,DC. The firm was formed in 2010 by the merger of the American law firm Hogan &Hartson and the British law firm Lovells. As of 2022,the firm employed about 2,500 lawyers,making it the sixth largest law firm in the world.
Maureen Kraemer Ohlhausen is an American lawyer who is a former Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission,a position she held from April 4,2012,to September 25,2018. On January 26,2017,President Donald Trump designated Ohlhausen to serve as Acting Chairwoman of the FTC. In January 2018,she was nominated by President Trump to a seat on the United States Court of Federal Claims. Ohlhausen withdrew her nomination for the federal judiciary in December 2018,opting instead to join Baker Botts as partner and co-chair of the firm's antitrust practice.
Joshua Daniel Wright is an American economist and legal scholar who served as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2013 to 2015. At the time of his nomination,Wright was the fourth economist to serve as a commissioner of the FTC.
Terrell McSweeny is an American attorney who served as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission from 2014 until 2018.
Lina M. Khan is a British-born American legal scholar serving as chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) since 2021. She is also an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School.
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter is an American attorney who is a current commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Slaughter was previously the acting chair of the Federal Trade Commission from January 21,2021,to June 15,2021.
The New Brandeis or neo-Brandeis movement is an antitrust academic and political movement in the United States which argues that excessively centralized private power is dangerous for economical,political and social reasons. Initially called hipster antitrust by its detractors,as also referred to as the "Columbia school" or "Neo-Progressive antitrust," the movement advocates that United States antitrust law return to a broader concern with private power and its negative effects on market competition,income inequality,consumer rights,unemployment,and wage growth.
Jonathan Seth Kanter is an American antitrust attorney who has served as assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division since November 16,2021. Prior to this,Kanter worked as an antitrust attorney at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and in private practice.
Christine Smith Wilson is an American attorney and former government official. A member of the Republican Party,Wilson was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018 to serve on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Wilson resigned from the FTC in 2023.
Noah Joshua Phillips is an American attorney who served on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2018 to 2022. Phillips was appointed to this position in 2018 by President Donald Trump,and was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. During the Biden administration,Phillips was one of two Republicans on the FTC,along with fellow commissioner Christine S. Wilson.
Thomas Barrett Leary was an American attorney who served as a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from November 17,1999 until his resignation from the body December 31,2005.
Alvaro Martin Bedoya is an American attorney and government official who has served on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) since 2022.
Executive Order 14036,titled Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy and sometimes referred to as the Executive Order on Competition,is the fifty-first executive order signed by U.S. President Joe Biden. Signed on July 9,2021,the order serves to establish a "whole-of-government effort to promote competition in the American economy" by encouraging stronger enforcement of antitrust law.
