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In
an interview on Tuesday, she also criticized what she said was a
large number obviously illegal deals and added she was not a fan
of agreements to remedy problematic mergers with asset sales.
Nor does she like behavioral remedies, when companies pledge a
particular policy change for a certain number of years.
Under former President Donald Trump, the FTC sued Facebook in
December 2020 alleging that the company acted illegally to
maintain its social network monopoly. Asked about the likelihood
of a settlement, Khan said: "We've laid out the relief that we
think would be necessary. I think you can yourself calculate the
likelihood of Facebook willingly settling for some of that
relief."
The FTC has asked a judge to order Facebook to unwind its
acquisitions of Instagram, in 2012, and WhatsApp in 2014.
"But of course, as an agency, we're always thinking about, you
know, preserving resources, how to think about settlements, the
trade offs against pursuing litigation, but this is (an)
incredibly important matter for the agency, and we're serious
about the relief that we're seeking," she added.
She was also critical of companies who brought mergers to the
government that they knew could not win antitrust approval.
"We see companies propose illegal, facially illegal mergers at
an unacceptably high rate," she said, adding that companies
often know their deals are unlawful and propose fixes. "I think
that's the wrong approach. I think we really need to be
promoting an environment where parties are coming to us with
clean deals, not with deals that are facially unlawful."
Behavioral remedies, like putting firewalls between certain
sectors of a company, do not address underlying problems, she
said.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by David Gregorio)
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