Trump appoints ‘pro-innovation’ FTC commissioner Andrew Ferguson to lead agency after Lina Khan rift

President-elect Donald Trump tapped Federal Trade Commissioner Andrew Ferguson to lead the consumer protection and antitrust agency, Trump said on social media Tuesday.

Ferguson, one of two Senate-confirmed Republican FTC commissioners appointed by President Biden, will be the “first and most pro-innovation FTC chairman in the history of our country,” Trump said.

“Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship and protecting Free Speech in our great country,” Trump said on his social media platform.

Ferguson has said the agency needs to address perceived censorship of conservative views online. If social media platforms colluded to suppress such views or advertisers coordinated to pull business from platforms such as Elon Musk’s X, they should be charged with violating US antitrust law, Ferguson said.

“We must vigorously enforce antitrust laws against any platform found to unlawfully restrict Americans’ ability to freely and openly exchange ideas,” Ferguson said in a recent statement. The agency became a political flashpoint under FTC Chairman Lina Khan, who promoted antitrust enforcement as a check on corporate power.

Her efforts won fans among some Republicans, including incoming Vice President JD Vance, but drew criticism as too aggressive from some antitrust lawyers and business groups.

Her successor will inherit a full slate of lawsuits against Big Tech companies, a lawsuit against three of the largest pharmacy benefit managers and at least a half-dozen lawsuits from companies that argue she overstepped her authority.

It’s unclear whether the next chair will proceed with pending investigations, including practices at Microsoft that competitors have complained deter customers from switching to other cloud service providers and potential privacy concerns involving OpenAI.

The new leadership could also change course in two major FTC cases against Amazon. One targets practices the agency says keep sellers tied to its platform and help Amazon illegally dominate the online marketplace landscape, and another on practices allegedly intended to trick Prime subscribers into canceling the service.

The new FTC chairman would also oversee a case brought against Meta Platforms, then known as Facebook, in 2020, during Trump’s first term.

The agency is looking to divest from the technology company’s acquisition of Instagram and Whatsapp. But the judge overseeing the case has cast doubt on whether the agency can prevail at trial in April.