Chair Lina M. Khan

Opening Statement

United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary

Hearing on Oversight of the Federal Trade Commission

July 13, 2023

Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Nadler, and members of the Committee, thank you

for inviting me to testify today. I am glad to join you to discuss the FTC’s work to promote fair

competition and protect Americans from unfair and deceptive practices. It’s a particular honor to

appear before this Committee, which I had the great privilege of serving during its historic

bipartisan investigation into digital markets and the power of large technology platforms.

As this Committee knows well, there has long been a battle in this country between

monopoly power and America’s democratic institutions. Congress created the FTC in 1914

against the backdrop of an industrial revolution that had delivered sweeping technological

advances but also enabled intense consolidation. Given deep national unease about the

unchecked power these monopolists could wield, lawmakers tasked the FTC with preventing

unfair methods of competition and scrutinizing business practices through regular data

collection and continuously building expertise. In the subsequent years, Congress has expanded

our legislative mandate to include laws aimed at protecting consumers. With each of these

efforts, Congress has redoubled its commitment to fair competition and to rooting out unfair or

deceptive business practices—and has charged us with pursuing these aims amid ever-shifting

business tactics and evolving technologies.

At the FTC, our North Star is fulfilling the important mandate that Congress gave us –

and doing all that we can to faithfully enforce the law and safeguard America’s citizens and

businesses from harmful, even dangerous, concentrations of private power that characterize

Federal Trade Commission Oversight Hearing Opening Statement — page 2

significant swathes our economy today. I am endlessly impressed by the talent and tenacity of

the FTC teams, especially in the face of ongoing resource constraints and legal challenges to our

authorities.

Over the past 24 months, the FTC has moved to challenge major transactions that would

have eroded competition in critical sectors of the economy, including defense, semiconductors,

energy, healthcare, digital markets, and pharmaceuticals. We are tackling anticompetitive

practices, including those that harm American farmers, small businesses, and workers. Last year,

the FTC and a bipartisan coalition of ten state attorneys general charged the two largest

pesticides manufacturers with unlawful “pay to block” schemes that prevented farmers from

having access to cheaper generic products, costing farmers billions of dollars. In January, the

FTC proposed a rule that would ban employers from imposing noncompete restrictions that lock

in workers and collectively depress their wages by up to $300 billion—while also depriving

startups and businesses of the employees they need to expand and compete. In the months since

proposing this rule, we’ve received over 21,000 public comments, including from nurses and

doctors, fast food workers, and hairdressers, who told us how noncompetes had hurt their

livelihoods and undermined their economic liberty. Already, several enforcement actions by the

FTC have led firms to drop noncompete restrictions imposed on thousands of workers.

The FTC also continues to use its tools to conduct market-wide inquiries that allow us to

keep pace with new business practices and trends. Last June, the Commission launched an

inquiry into the practices of pharmacy benefits managers to shed light on the opaque operations

of these large middlemen who can dictate pricing and access to life-saving drugs for millions of

Americans. This inquiry follows thousands of public comments the FTC received explaining the

real-life costs that can follow from PBMs’ current practices. One doctor, for example, recounted

Federal Trade Commission Oversight Hearing Opening Statement — page 3

how delays in PBM approvals caused her patient to develop resistance to an otherwise effective

treatment, ultimately leading to the needless loss of her patient’s eye.

In addition to these critical areas of work, we are redoubling our efforts to protect

Americans’ privacy and combat fraud—while also activating additional authorities that

Congress has given us. We’ve brought actions to protect consumers from Made in USA fraud,

protect military families from predatory financing, and protect addiction recovery patients from

deception. We are fighting to protect the security of people’s sensitive personal data and have

obtained record monetary judgments—including the largest-ever judgment to protect children’s

privacy.

The Commission has also proposed rules to address some of the most widespread scams,

like government impersonation fraud, Made in USA fraud, and fake online reviews. The agency

is tackling junk fees plaguing American consumers and scrutinizing dark patterns that trick

people into incurring unwanted charges or surrendering sensitive data. Our “click to cancel” rule

would require companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up for one.

The FTC is also committed to fighting for people’s right to repair their own products.

Following a 2021 report to Congress, the FTC has brought several major actions against

companies for imposing unlawful repair restrictions, hurting customers and independent repair

shops alike.

In other words, the FTC is firing on all cylinders, fighting every day to protect the

American people from unlawful business practices. These efforts reflect the extraordinary work

of our agency’s staff, whose talent and dedication are second to none. It is a deep honor to serve

in this role, and I am enormously proud to see how our enforcement actions and policy work are

materially helping Americans in their day-to-day lives. In the aggregate, our work helps promote

Federal Trade Commission Oversight Hearing Opening Statement — page 4

the open, competitive, resilient markets that have been the bedrock of America’s economic

success and dynamism throughout our nation’s history.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today, and I am happy to answer your

questions.

***

Federal Trade Commission Oversight Hearing Opening Statement

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