When Democratic donors attacked the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration’s chief antitrust regulator, Lina Khan, during this year’s election, Vice President Harris declined to defend her, prompting some critics to say Harris was abandoning a populist message during a heated campaign.
At the time, the public did not know what was just revealed: Khan’s agency had launched a probe of the rideshare giant employing Harris’s brother-in-law and top adviser, who helped craft the Democratic campaign’s economic pitch to voters and big donors.
Last week, Bloomberg revealed that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) earlier this year opened a probe into Uber’s subscription service, looking at whether the rideshare company had violated consumer protection laws.
Tony West, Harris’s brother-in-law, is the senior vice president and chief legal officer for Uber, the tech company that offers on-demand taxi rides and other services. During Harris’s presidential bid, West took a temporary leave of absence from the company and reportedly shaped the Harris campaign’s economic policy and messaging. One Biden aide told the Atlantic “that Harris steered away from hard-edged messaging at the urging of her brother-in-law, Tony West.”
The FTC’s new probe of Uber is the latest strike by Khan against Big Tech. Under Khan’s leadership, the FTC has taken on Amazon, Meta, and Google and promised that gig economy companies like Uber and Lyft would come under scrutiny.
Khan’s approach to the position has helped launch a new chapter of antitrust enforcement, winning her praise from antimonopoly and consumer protection advocates and even some Republicans skeptical of big business. But it has also made her many enemies in corporate…
Auteur: Freddy Brewster
