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U.S. Senate confirms Google critic Kanter to head Justice Dept Antitrust Division -Breaking

by Mike Robinson

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© Reuters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Jonathan Kanter (Google critic and backed by progressives) as head of Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

Kanter, during his confirmation hearing, pledged that he would enforce the antitrust laws in Big Tech, agriculture and pharmaceuticals.

He was confirmed by the Senate on a vote 68 to 29.

Kanter is third among three individuals who have technical expertise and were supported by progressives to be selected for important antitrust positions. Lina Khan, chair of Federal Trade Commission and Tim Wu were the other two.

Kanter assumes the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department at a moment when there are calls for more enforcement and criticisms from both sides of online platforms. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ.com Inc, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ.com Inc) and Apple Inc. They vigorously denied all wrongdoing.

Kanter spent many years representing competitors of Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:) Inc. Google. The Justice Department filed suit last year against Kanter alleging it violated antitrust laws in trying to impede search engine rivals. A second suit is being filed by the government against Kanter, which will focus on digital advertising. Google denied any wrongdoing.

Apple is being investigated by the department for possible violations of antitrust laws.

In the last year, deals have increased at the Justice Department as well as the Federal Trade Commission.

In the past year, the department also sued to stop Penguin Random House’s $2.2 billion deal for Simon & Schuster and to halt a partnership between American Airlines (NASDAQ:) Group Inc and JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:) Corp. A deal between Aon Plc (NYSE:) Plc (NASDAQ:) Plc) was also stopped by the department.

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