FTC Chair Lina Khan on Microsoft Merger, ChatGPT and Her Court Losses - The Journal. - WSJ Podcasts

This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.Lina Khan: Okay, Kate, I am so, so, so sorry to keep you waiting. Today's been a bit of a crazy day over here.

Lina Khan: There is empirical research showing that in certain markets we have seen a decline in competition, that that's correlated with higher markups, with lower rates of innovation or lower rates of quality improvements. So that is all research that we take into account, but from a enforcement perspective, we really look at every case and every matter based on the facts before us and assess how the law is applied to that context.

Kate Linebaugh: Khan is referring to Meta's purchase of a virtual reality fitness company called Within Unlimited. The FTC tried to block the deal in court, arguing it would reduce competition. But the FTC lost and has said it won't appeal the ruling. Kate Linebaugh: Merger guidelines have been around for decades and every so often they're updated to take into account changes in the market and important court decisions. The last time these were updated was in 2010. The new guidelines spell out the kinds of mergers that the FTC and the Justice Department say may break the law. Why is it necessary to update the guidelines now?

Kate Linebaugh: You're releasing these guidelines after the FTC had a loss in the Microsoft Activision case. Do you think they will help your cases going forward? Lina Khan: So I'm limited in being able to talk about any ongoing investigations, but we've laid out some of the concerns that we are seeing. So the FTC has both a competition mandate, but we also have a consumer protection mandate where we are charged with prohibiting unfair or deceptive practices. We've already been seeing how some of these AI tools are being used to turbocharge fraud and scams.

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