President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, liberal Big Tech critic Jonathan Kanter, received almost-unanimous bipartisan support during a Senate committee vote Thursday to advance his nomination to the Senate floor.
The Senate Judiciary Committee chose on a bipartisan basis to move his nomination forward without taking a vote count, but one Republican, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, requested that he be marked as voting down his nomination.
Kanter’s confirmation is expected in the coming weeks and would signify a major step by Biden to rein in Big Tech companies. It comes after Biden nominated vocal anti-monopolist Lina Khan to lead the Federal Trade Commission and announced an executive action earlier this summer to foster more competitiveness in the U.S. economy.
“I’ve been a strong proponent of vigorous antitrust enforcement in the technology area, among others,” Kanter said during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this month.
The Justice Department, along with the Federal Trade Commission, is responsible for antitrust enforcement, primarily through investigations, lawsuits, penalties, and fines. Antitrust laws are meant to protect consumers from anti-competitive mergers and business practices.
Kanter’s nomination signals a blow for Silicon Valley companies, such as Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon, which are under intense bipartisan scrutiny from the government for accusations of monopolistic behavior.
As an antitrust lawyer, Kanter has previously represented companies, such as Yelp and Microsoft, that have accused Google of unfair and anti-competitive behavior. He has also worked for a firm representing Amazon, Uber, and Mastercard on antitrust issues.
This background could provide grounds for tech giants (such as Google, Amazon, and Uber) to ask him to recuse himself from antitrust cases involving their companies due to conflicts of interest.
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Nevertheless, if confirmed by the Senate, Kanter is expected to go after illegal monopolies aggressively and stop anti-competitive mergers, particularly within the tech industry.
