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The Morning Risk Report: Lina Khan, Critic of Large Tech Firms, Confirmed for Federal Trade Commission
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Lina Khan, who has argued that antitrust law has failed to restrain Amazon.com, testified at a Senate confirmation hearing in April.
PHOTO: GRAEME JENNINGS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Lina Khan for a seat on the Federal Trade Commission, and the White House plans to tap her to lead the agency, a post that will allow her to pursue aggressive enforcement of U.S. antitrust and consumer-protection laws.
Ms. Khan, a 32-year-old Columbia University law professor who has been a vocal critic of powerful technology companies, was confirmed on a 69-28 vote. With her confirmation secured, President Biden now will designate her as FTC chairwoman, according to a person familiar with the decision.
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Ms. Khan has been the leader of a progressive movement that favors far-reaching changes to antitrust enforcement, saying the current decadeslong approach has done too little to restrain corporate dominance and stop mergers that have eroded competition.
The Senate’s vote was bipartisan, with 21 Republicans voting for Ms. Khan at a time when many in the GOP say the government should do more to rein in dominant tech firms. Still, some Republicans have criticized her approach as too interventionist and potentially burdensome for other industries.
Ms. Khan has reserved her deepest criticisms for dominant tech companies, especially Amazon.com Inc., the subject of a widely read law-review article she wrote while at Yale Law School that argued that antitrust law has failed to restrain the online retailer.
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From Risk & Compliance Journal
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Russian Tycoon Oleg Deripaska Loses Suit to Lift U.S. Sanctions
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A U.S. judge ruled against Russian industrial tycoon Oleg Deripaska in his attempt to have sanctions imposed on him by the U.S. in 2018 removed.
Mr. Deripaska sued the Treasury Department in 2019 challenging his inclusion in a Treasury report on Russian oligarchs as well as the sanctions against him. The lawsuit alleged the Treasury Department made false allegations based on rumor and innuendo to support the sanctions.
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The legislation would set up a new committee, led by the attorney general, at the U.S. International Trade Commission.
PHOTO: ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS
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Several senators introduced legislation Tuesday aiming to make it easier for businesses that believe they are victims of intellectual property theft to halt imports made with their trade secrets while their allegations are being investigated.
The bill by Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) and Sen. Christopher Coons (D., Del.) would amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to create a new committee at the U.S. International Trade Commission, a federal agency that already investigates violations of U.S. intellectual property rights, such as patents and trademarks.
The committee, led by the U.S. attorney general, would look into an allegation of trade theft waged by a competitor that has the backing of a foreign government.
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The world’s top maritime regulator has agreed to a plan to cut the “carbon-intensity” of ocean-going vessels, overriding objections from Western countries that the accord doesn’t commit the shipping sector to specific emission cuts.
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The Biden administration is seeking increased funds for the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation and promoting programs for civic education and digital literacy to counter a rise in domestic terrorism, according to a broad new strategy released Tuesday morning.
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A federal judge in Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Biden administration from pausing new oil and gas leases on federal land.
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Lordstown Motors’ two top leaders resigned unexpectedly after a board committee found inaccuracies in the way it discloses preorders for its forthcoming truck.
PHOTO: DAVID MAXWELL/SHUTTERSTOCK
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Executives at troubled electric-truck startup Lordstown Motors Corp. said Tuesday that the company has enough interest from potential buyers to sustain factory output through the end of 2022 and remains on track to start limited production in September.
The Ohio-based startup is one of several electric-vehicle challengers to have whipsawed in a matter of months from being Wall Street darlings to the target of short-sellers, financial regulators and critics questioning their longer-term viability.
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Shares of DraftKings Inc. slid as much as 12% on Tuesday after short seller Hindenburg Research said the sports-betting firm’s gambling-technology subsidiary SBTech operates in countries where gambling is banned and said it is positioned for DraftKings shares to fall.
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Alibaba says about 925 million people use Chinese retail platforms belonging to the Hangzhou-based company at least once a month.
PHOTO: QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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A Chinese software developer trawled Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s popular Taobao shopping website for eight months, clandestinely collecting more than 1.1 billion pieces of user information before Alibaba noticed the scraping, a Chinese court verdict said.
The software developer began using web-crawling software he designed on Taobao’s site starting in November 2019, gathering information including user IDs, mobile-phone numbers and customer comments, according to a verdict released this month by a district court in China’s central Henan province. When Alibaba noticed the data leaks from Taobao, one of China’s most-visited online retail sites, the company informed the police, the court said.
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Gamers have struggled for years with hackers who cheat and take over accounts. Now, videogame studios are coming under serious attack, prompting them to step up their cyber defenses. Electronic Arts Inc. said Thursday it was breached by hackers recently, confirming an earlier report by technology news outlet Motherboard. That followed a disclosure by Polish game developer CD Projekt SA in February of a ransomware attack and a similar invasion of systems at Capcom Co. Ltd. last November.
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Southwest said it was in the process of resuming normal operations.
PHOTO: LOREN ELLIOTT/REUTERS
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For the second day in a row, a technical problem snarled Southwest Airlines Co.’s operations, leading to hundreds of delays and prompting the airline to cancel 500 flights.
Southwest said it was in the process of resuming normal operations following what it called a system issue that created disruptions throughout its network. An airline spokeswoman said multiple systems had experienced connectivity issues.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it had temporarily halted Southwest flights at the airline’s request Tuesday while the company resolved the problem.
Airlines’ IT systems have often left them vulnerable to disruptive glitches and breakdowns over the years.
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