Amazon requires FTC chair Lina Khan’s recusal from antitrust investigations | Engadget

has requested the recusal of Federal Trade Commission Chair from the company’s antitrust investigations into the corporate. “Amazon.com, Inc. respectfully petitions the commission for recusal of Chair Lina Khan from any antitrust investigation, adjudication, litigation, or other proceeding in which Amazon is a subject, target or defendant for which Chair Khan’s prior public statements create the appearance of her having prejudged facts and/or legal issues relevant to the proceeding,” the corporate stated in a 25-page submitting.

President Joe Biden appointed Khan as FTC chair this month on the identical day . She got here to prominence as a critic of main tech corporations, together with Amazon. Khan revealed a Yale Law Journal article in 2017 titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” wherein she argued that US insurance policies and legal guidelines weren’t sufficient to maintain giants like Amazon accountable.

“Given her long track record of detailed pronouncements about Amazon, and her repeated proclamations that Amazon has violated the antitrust laws, a reasonable observer would conclude that she no longer can consider the company’s antitrust defenses with an open mind,” Amazon said in the filing, as notes.

The FTC is as a part of a sequence of investigations towards main tech corporations. The company can be reviewing Amazon’s plan to for $8.45 billion.

Khan beforehand labored with the House Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee on a 16-month probe into Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Last yr, Democrats on the panel referred to as on Congress to contemplate . During her affirmation listening to, Khan stated she would communicate with FTC ethics officers relating to a potential recusal if wanted.