Washington: The US Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Google critic Jonathan Kantor, who has been backed by progressives, to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
At his confirmation hearing, Cantor pledged to enforce antitrust laws in agriculture, pharmaceuticals and the labor market, as well as Big Tech.
The Senate confirmed him by a vote of 68 to 29.
Cantor is the third of three men who have technical expertise and were supported by progressives to be elected to key antitrust positions. The other two were Tim Wu for the National Economic Council and Lena Khan as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.
Kantor takes the reins of the Justice Department’s antitrust division at a time of calls for stricter enforcement and bipartisan criticism of Internet platforms such as Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. The companies have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Cantor has spent years representing Google’s rivals to Alphabet Inc., which was sued by the Justice Department last year alleging it broke antitrust laws to attract search engine rivals. The government is preparing to file a second lawsuit focused on the company’s digital advertising business. Google has also denied wrongdoing.
The department is also investigating Apple for alleged violations of antitrust law.
The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, which share the task of enforcing the antitrust law, have seen a surge in deals over the past year.
Over the past year, the department also sued to block Penguin Random House’s $2.2 billion deal for Simon & Schuster and a partnership between American Airlines Group Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. It also forked a deal between Aon plc and Willis Towers Watson plc.
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