How the FTC chooses cases
While the Elon Musk interview at NYT’s DealBook Summit 2023 took up the most of the headlines, I thought this from the FTC Chair Lina Khan during her interview was interesting:
We have a big job and we have limited resources. So we have to think about how can we have the greatest impact on what we identify as some of the biggest problems.
Later on in the interview when asked about whether she chooses cases based on a particular probability of a win:
It’s also dependent on resources. We are quite a small agency, all things considered, at around 1200. We max out at capacity so we have to pick our battles carefully. With M&A of course, it’s a very fluid environment. You don’t know, when you’re deciding today what lawsuits to bring, what deals are going to be there in 2 weeks, a month, in 2 months? So the decision-making there can be quite dynamic.
Pair with this article on Khan’s shaky success so far and this one about how it is conflicting with the currently conservative judiciary.