Antitrust regulators had a busy September making appearances at the Georgetown Annual Antitrust Enforcement Symposium and the Fordham Competition Law Institute’s Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan and Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division Jonathan Kanter provided agency updates and highlighted where their current priorities lie. During his speech at Georgetown, AAG Kanter spoke primarily about enforcement stateside, and at the Fordham conference Khan and Kanter expanded their worldview, encouraging global enforcers to follow their lead and more rigorously enforce antitrust laws.

AAG Kanter told the audience at Georgetown that the DOJ has no intention of slowing enforcement efforts. “People who had never before heard of the antitrust laws are realizing the costs of underenforcement.” Press Release, DOJ, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter Delivers Keynote Speech at Georgetown Antitrust Law Symposium (Sept. 13, 2022) (hereinafter Kanter Keynote Release). Kanter explained that antitrust enforcement protects consumers, workers, citizens, entrepreneurs and others against the improper exercise of market power, permits markets to operate more effectively, supports economic liberty, and protects democracy. Id.