Big Business Piles on Lina Khan

○ The FTC chair has become the main focus of groups working against the Biden administration’s efforts to revive antitrust policy

Lina Khan has made no secret of her desire to take on what she sees as the excesses of big business. But something seemed to click for corporate America on Jan. 5, when the Federal Trade Commission, the  gency she heads, announced a proposed rule that would ban noncompete agreements, contracts that employers use to keep departing workers from taking other jobs in their industry. Some businesses say these contracts help them retain talent and protect sensitive information; the FTC says they’re an unfair drag on the economy and that banning them will increase wages by $300 billion annually.

The US Chamber of Commerce set up a series of regular calls almost immediately with more than 100 of its local chapters, business groups and private companies. They’ve discussed things such as who should lead the lawsuit it’s considering filing when the rules are finalized, say two people involved, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “We began to hear unprecedented levels of concern from our members,” says Sean Heather, the Chamber’s senior vice president for international regulatory affairs and antitrust.

For the past two years, the FTC has been consumed by fights with specific companies—notably the largest US tech corporations. The non-compete rule, by contrast, could have an economywide impact, touching approximately 1 in every 5 US workers. Other rules the FTC is working on—such as a plan to crack down on tech companies collecting personal information without permission and new guidelines on how the government should approach mergers and acquisitions—could have similarly sweeping implications.