The Robinson–Patman Act (RPA) of 1936 is a United States federal law that prohibits anticompetitive practices by producers,specifically price discrimination.
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.
Cravath,Swaine &Moore LLP is an American white-shoe law firm with its headquarters in New York City,and additional offices in London and Washington,D.C.
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.
Edith Ramirez is an American attorney who served as a member of the Federal Trade Commission from 2010 to 2017. Ramirez served as FTC Chair from 2013 to 2017,the first person of color to lead the agency.
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.
Joseph Simons is an American attorney who formerly served as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.
Jelena McWilliams is a Serbian-American business executive and a former Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She was nominated to the position and to the FDIC Board of Directors by President Donald Trump,and the Senate confirmed her appointment on May 24,2018. She was sworn in as chairman on June 5,2018. Previously,McWilliams was executive vice president and chief legal officer of Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati,Ohio. She resigned from her position as Chairman of the Board of the FDIC on February 4,2022.
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.
Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms,Inc. is an ongoing antitrust court case brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Facebook parent company Meta. Filed in conjunction with 46 states,the lawsuit alleges that Meta has accumulated monopoly power via anti-competitive mergers,with the suit centering on the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
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.
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.
