Who Is Andrew Ferguson, the New Chairman of the FTC

• Donald Trump tapped Andrew Ferguson to exchange Lina Khan as chair of the Federal Commerce Fee.
• Ferguson has vowed to tackle Huge Tech whereas paring again the FTC’s current give attention to antitrust.
• This is what we find out about Ferguson and his priorities to this point.

Andrew Ferguson is in as Chair of the Federal Commerce Fee.

As the brand new chief of the federal government’s key shopper safety company, he’ll oversee instances involving unfair, misleading, and fraudulent enterprise practices — and have a serious position in the way forward for Huge Tech.

The commissioner, who as soon as clerked for Clarence Thomas, was nominated to the fee by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2023. The staunch Republican has vowed to uphold President Donald Trump’s agenda as Chair, saying in a December assertion that, beneath Trump’s management, “American companies will develop into stronger and extra aggressive, and can higher serve employees and customers, than ever earlier than.”

“On the FTC, we’ll finish Huge Tech’s vendetta in opposition to competitors and free speech,” Ferguson mentioned in his assertion, thanking Trump. “We are going to ensure that America is the world’s technological chief and the perfect place for innovators to convey new concepts to life.”

Representatives for FTC declined to remark when reached by Enterprise Insider. This is what we find out about Ferguson and his priorities as he leads the fee.

FTC strikes beneath Ferguson

Whereas the FTC’s agenda beneath Trump is simply getting underway, Alden Abbott, a former basic counsel of the Federal Commerce Fee who’s accustomed to Ferguson’s pondering, advised Enterprise Insider he expects the fee beneath Ferguson’s management to give attention to conventional enforcement approaches on the company and, most often, cease pursuing former chair Lina Khan’s expansive rulemaking arguments about shopper hurt, which have been seen by some as pushing the boundaries of established antitrust authorized precedent and drew ire from some conservatives.

“He is good,” Abbott mentioned. “I feel he views himself as a conservative lawyer who believes in a robust government studying within the textual content of a statute, textualism, and separation of powers. He suits the mould of the elite Federalist Society kind of lawyer. So I feel you are going to get a reasonably aggressive FTC on issues like antitrust — shopper safety, possibly, however I feel you will you will see much less rulemaking.”

Since Trump took workplace, the FTC beneath Ferguson has moved to dam Tempur Sealy’s proposed $4 billion acquisition of Mattress Agency, proposed a $4.9 million advantageous in opposition to a fee processing firm, accusing it of misleading enterprise practices, and filed a lawsuit in opposition to the three largest prescription drug profit managers for “participating in anticompetitive and unfair rebating practices which have artificially inflated the record value of insulin medication,” based on case proceedings.

Underneath his tenure as chair, Ferguson will oversee the unlawful monopolization claims in opposition to 4 main US tech firms — Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta — introduced by the FTC and the Division of Justice.

Abbott mentioned he expects Ferguson to proceed pursuing these instances, although he would not anticipate the FTC beneath his management will search main breakups of the massive companies as potential treatments. As a substitute, Abbott mentioned, he expects Ferguson to hunt coverage or contract modifications to treatment antitrust issues.

“One unknown is that Ferguson has mentioned he is involved in regards to the politicization of those platforms and anxious in regards to the authorities coercing platforms or working with platforms to interact in political censorship; stuff like that,” Abbott mentioned. “These can be relatively novel instances beneath current antitrust legal guidelines. And I do not know the way he’d wish to pursue these, however I do assume he will — he mentioned he desires to be a vigorous enforcer.”

Eager alignment with the Trump administration

Since Trump introduced Ferguson’s appointment as chair of the FTC, Ferguson has made clear his willingness to advance the Trump administration’s priorities.

In posts on X, Ferguson praised Trump’s nomination of Mark Meador to fill an empty commissioner seat on the FTC, and highlighted his readiness to “implement President Trump’s agenda” on the company.

Do you’re employed for the FTC? Contact the reporter with suggestions at ktangalakislippert@businessinsider.com

Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Ferguson introduced that the FTC, beneath his management, would enthusiastically adjust to Trump’s order to eradicate variety, fairness, and inclusion initiatives in authorities places of work.

“DEI is a scourge on our establishments,” Ferguson mentioned in a submit on X in late January. “President Trump promised the American people who he would finish it. He has completed so in three wonderful government orders. Underneath my management, the FTC is doing its half to finish the DEI plague. We’re completed with DEI on the FTC. No DEI workplace, no DEI affect on hiring, no DEI programming. It’s over.”

Ferguson led the FTC in closing the fee’s DEI workplace, inserting all workers inside that workplace on administrative depart, and eradicating supplies promising DEI on the fee’s web site.

He additionally ordered a assessment of all FTC contracts, an inner audit of the fee’s workplace, and a assessment of earlier fee orders “to make sure that the Biden Administration’s DEI dictates didn’t make their means into formal Fee choices,” an FTC press launch associated to the choice learn.

Ferguson’s alignment with Trump has already ruffled the feathers of the democrat appointee on the fee. Commissioner Alvaro M. Bedoya, one other Biden nominee, dissented from Ferguson’s anti-DEI initiative with an announcement that criticized Ferguson’s first official transfer as chair, studying: “Chairman Ferguson might have completed any variety of issues to really decrease the price of dwelling and create alternatives for American companies and employees. He did none of them. As a substitute, he cancelled ‘DEI.'”

Former Supreme Courtroom clerk turned solicitor basic

In accordance with his FTC biography, the Virginia native earned his undergraduate diploma and legislation levels from the College of Virginia, one of many prime 10 legislation faculties within the nation.

After legislation college, Ferguson served as a clerk for Choose Karen L. Henderson on the US Courtroom of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and, from 2016 to 2017, for US Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas. He additionally practiced antitrust legislation at a number of outstanding Washington D.C. legislation companies, the place he represented non-public shoppers in litigation, earlier than pivoting to extra outstanding roles in authorities.

Ferguson served as chief counsel to Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky from 2019 to 2021, earlier than being chosen in 2022 to function a solicitor basic of Virginia. There, he oversaw appellate litigation, represented the southern state earlier than the Supreme Courtroom, and defended Virginia’s legal guidelines from constitutional challenges.

After his 2023 nomination to the FTC by the Biden administration — as a part of Biden’s initiative to incorporate bipartisan nominations to key places of work — Ferguson was unanimously confirmed to function one of many company’s 5 commissioners. He took workplace in March 2024, with a six-year time period scheduled to finish in September 2030.