Svetlana Gans, main FTC candidate, has Huge Tech ties: insiders

The main candidate for the soon-to-open regulator slot on the Federal Commerce Fee has an extended historical past of working to push Huge Tech’s agenda, The Put up has realized.

Svetlana Gans, a associate at legislation agency Gibson Dunn, has been quietly assembly with main Republicans, together with Senate Minority Chief Senator Mitch McConnel, about taking over the position of FTC commissioner, in response to sources.

Gibson Dunn’s shoppers have included Fb, Google and Amazon. Gans additionally had a stint with The Web and Tv Affiliation, the place she labored with main cable and telecom corporations.

In a Wall Road Journal op-ed penned by Gans, she argued the Supreme Courtroom had a authorized foundation to strike down a lot of the FTC’s targets below progressive Chair Lina Khan.

“Because the FTC advances its aggressive agenda, there’s a definite chance it’s going to find yourself proscribing not American enterprise however the FTC itself,” Gans wrote with Eugene Scalia, former Secretary of Schooling and the son of late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Gans labored for practically a decade as chief of workers for Republican FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen, who many considered as slow-walking regulation on Huge Tech. Ohlhausen left the FTC in 2018 to tackle work at Baker Botts, the place she is at present representing Amazon in an FTC investigation, in response to Politico.

Gans didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Gans’ observe file — mixed together with her latest op-ed — are elevating eyebrows amongst conservatives who’re anxious she might don’t have any qualms with Huge Tech’s affect.

“Svetlana Gans could be an absolute catastrophe for Republicans that need to maintain Huge Tech accountable. She has a historical past of friendliness with Huge Tech, and works for a legislation agency that represents Fb,” a former Senate Judiciary aide informed The Put up. “Conservative teams will oppose her.”

Gans has not been nominated however she is seen because the doubtless decide for the FTC after Noah Phillips, one among two Republican-appointed FTC commissioners, introduced his plans to depart this fall, in response to insiders.

Whereas his departure received’t change the Democratic majority, a pro-tech decide might stall or complicate Khan’s efforts to crack down on corporations like Fb and Google.

The FTC, which is tasked with defending the general public from unfair enterprise practices, is comprised of 5 members — with not more than three of the 5 regulators hailing from the identical political celebration at one time.

The president appoints the FTC chair and nominates a candidate if a commissioner within the majority leaves. The highest senator from the minority celebration, on this case McConnell, nominates a candidate if a commissioner within the minority leaves.

A spokesperson for McConnell declined to remark.

These with data of the FTC course of fear Gans will decelerate or impede the company’s capability to manage Huge Tech.

“There are lots of ways in which individuals who like Huge Tech might muddy the waters,” an insider informed The Put up. “There’s some extent the place she could also be within the majority on the FTC and that may actually damage the agenda.”

Gans’ husband, Jon Gans, can be carefully allied with tech corporations. He beforehand lobbied for Apple and is now working for Microsoft at his brother’s lobbying agency Polaris Consulting.

“We don’t need a Huge Tech shill. We don’t need somebody who’s made a profession out of boosting the most important corporations on the earth,” Jon Schweppe, coverage director at American Rules Venture, informed The Put up.

“We wish somebody who might be powerful, however truthful — somebody who might be skeptical of Huge Tech’s concentrated energy and prepared to crack down on Huge Tech’s anti-competitive habits,” he added.