Longtime Google enemy Kanter to be named as DOJ antitrust head
Jonathan Kanter argued for an antitrust suit against Google for years, winning him allies on the left and right.
Ben Brody
Protocol
July 20, 2021
President Joe Biden will name Jonathan Kanter, a lawyer who long argued for an antitrust case against Google, to lead the Justice Department's antitrust section, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Kanter, who has worked for clients such as Yelp that have long objected to Google's competitive practices, is viewed as one of the earliest lawyers to argue for more aggressive antitrust enforcement and new thinking on competition as he pursued a case against the search giant over several years.
The department and a coalition of states sued Google last year— one of several government antitrust lawsuits against the company. If confirmed, Kanter would oversee the next developments of the case, including litigation strategy and demands for remedies.
Last month, Biden also designated Lina Khan, another architect of the movement for revamped antitrust laws, to chair the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which shares competition enforcement responsibilities with the Justice Department. She has already begun an aggressive push against Big Tech.
Biden's sweeping order on competition has also urged agencies to bring antitrust considerations to additional areas of the economy.
Liberal would-be reformers have long championed Kanter, but with antitrust reform becoming increasingly bipartisan, several Republicans in the Senate have also signaled interest in him, Protocol previously reported. Those flirtations could ease his confirmation.
Longtime Google enemy Kanter to be named as DOJ antitrust head - Protocol — The people, power and politics of tech |
