DoJ’s Jonathan Kanter does not see a ‘complete U-turn on antitrust’ under Donald Trump

Jonathan Kanter has stepped down as one of President Joe Biden’s top antitrust enforcers, but he is hopeful that the next administration will uphold the crackdown on corporate power that he has helped unleash. Since taking the job in 2021, Kanter shook the establishment by rejecting the notion that corporate growth be tolerated so long as consumers were not harmed—a shift from the “consumer welfare” standard that has underpinned US antitrust policy since the 1970s. During his tenure he has successfully blocked several major deals, and his tough enforcement posture led to a wave of abandoned deals. Sweeping monopolisation lawsuits, once a rarity, are proceeding against Google and Apple, as well as other corporate giants, including Visa and Ticketmaster. Alongside Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, he sought novel applications of century-old competition laws to address harm against workers as well as new market dynamics such as private equity groups rolling up chunks of the US economy. But whether he and Khan have caused a lasting sea change in corporate America or will see their signature achievements thrown out by courts or walked back by their successors remains to be seen.