FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips and George Washington Law School Competition Law Director William E. Kovacic, who once chaired the agency, appeared on a webinar today (March 16, 2021) hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Aurelien Portuese, ITIF’s Director of Antitrust and Innovation Policy, asked the speakers what we might expect from the Biden administration in terms of antitrust law, reform, and enforcement.

“I think that the aggressiveness that’s going on in court right now will increase,” Phillips said. “I think you’ll see more litigation. What effects that will have I’m not sure. That can result in more antitrust, if you will, but it can also result in losses and legal rulings that don’t favor the agencies. But I do think you’ll see more litigation.” He went on to predict “an increasing attempt to slow M&A generally.”

“On litigation,” former FTC Chair Kovacic said, “the new leadership in many ways is committed to doing much more and, in an exaggerated way, they have denigrated the significance of what’s already on the way. They’re going to discover in a hurry how hard it is to bring the matters that are in flight already to a successful landing.”

Read more at the MoginRubin Blog.