The 32-year-old Khan’s nomination was supported by a surprising number of Republicans and now opens the door for a determined push against the platforms like Google, Amazon and Facebook. ACCC chief Rod Sims said he was “delighted with the appointment and looked forward to working with her”.
Sims has met Khan in Washington, where she was effusive in her praise of his report on digital platforms.
The move comes as UK regulator Andrea Coscelli unveiled a full investigation into Apple and Google’s mobile phone operating systems that could blow their model apart.
Not so long ago Sims was something of a radical in global antitrust circles, but today he almost looks conservative as other antitrust authorities put his words into action.
The reality for the big platforms and big business is there is now a global antitrust hierarchy from Sydney to Brussels to Paris to London and Washington with an intellectual rigour vehemently opposed to the way they exercise their market power, their impact on rival companies, customers, consumers and the respective national economies.
For Khan, the battle is to convert her well-established views into action as the head of a big government agency and ultimately to get the courts to agree with her arguments. She is regarded by those who know her as extremely intelligent, with her two feet firmly on the ground, and incredibly impressive. Khan made her name in 2017, when at Yale University she wrote a paper that criticised antitrust orthodoxy, which says as long as consumers are better off with lower prices then everything is fine.
She argued: “As consumers, as users, we love these tech companies. But as citizens, as workers, and as entrepreneurs, we recognise that their power is troubling. We need a new framework, a new vocabulary for how to assess and address their dominance.”
Dubbed hipster antitrust, her Yale paper created a storm in US and, indeed, global legal circles because consumer welfare was long considered the bedrock of antitrust law.
The US has two antitrust regulators, the FTC and the Department of Justice, with the latter generally focused on merger litigation such as the landmark case against Facebook seeking divestment of some assets.
Khan has noted the US has “a sweeping market power problem” in which large firms have been allowed to become too dominant.
Sims has said much the same about Australia, but the bottom line is applying the law to the facts.
In the recent Woolworths-PFD deal, Sims talked big in his statement of issues but in the final analysis the deal passed muster.
Khan says the current system in the US gives a green light to most corporate mergers and all except the most questionable business practices.
She argues a company should not get a pass on anti-competitive behaviour just because it makes customers happy.
The 69 to 28 vote confirming her appointment underlines almost bilateral approval and Khan also has the firm backing of President Joe Biden.
A final appointment is yet to be made to head the Justice Department, but together with other global antitrust chiefs the stage is now set for a showdown with the tech platforms and other big businesses that enjoy excessive market power.
Unhealthy backlog
Australia’s hospitals and private medical practitioners are being run off their feet by punters who should have had an operation or test last year but due to Covid it was deferred.
One issue is whether the hospital system can meet demand, another is what impact it will have on private health insurers.
Medibank and NIB put aside money for more claims in their last accounts as deferred claim liabilities, much the same as banks put aside money for bad debts.
As things stand now, the rush on the medical system hasn’t blown up the bank, as it were, but watch this space.
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Canberra pilgrimage
New ASX chairman Damian Roche is leading a board pilgrimage to Canberra this week as the dominant market operator reports on technology progress with Josh Frydenberg, Financial Services Minister Jane Hume and other ministers.
The annual Canberra board meeting comes ahead of the deadline this week of the Clean Energy Regulator’s tender for a simplified carbon trading process.
The ASX is bidding against ChiX, FEX, CBL and others as part of the CER’s efforts to simplify carbon trading in Australia. The existence of a functioning voluntary carbon trading market setting carbon prices is one of the dirty little secrets of the carbon debate.
The government is not keen to talk up its benefits.
The ASX on Wednesday also unveiled its new software for real-time corporate actions straight-through processing (STP) service, which enables the processing and delivery of critical information – everything from dividends to entitlement offers.
The trip to Canberra is part of the normal schedule for many companies and next week the Group of 100, which represents corporate finance chiefs, will pay a visit.
The finance chiefs spend one day in Canberra, which this year will focus on a range of government ministers and two from the opposition with a dinner next Wednesday with Finance Minister Simon Birmingham.
It alternates each year, with the focus next year on the opposition.
The ASX is doing some internal restructuring, which included the recent decision by deputy chief Peter Hiom to leave to join Motive Partners, the global partnership that includes former Digital Assets boss Blythe Masters.
Digital Assets is part-owned by the ASX and is its advisory on its much-delayed blockchain revamp for its Chess clearing house system.
The internal review also saw markets boss David Raper leave, with some of his functions such as data management being moved to a different division.
Raper has been with the ASX since 2006, when the ASX acquired the Sydney Futures Exchange.
The ASX is in the midst of a boom in new listings, with 50 companies joining the bourse already this year and another 39 in the pipeline.
This is putting pressure on the clearing process, with the ASX keen to ensure quality of the new listings is maintained.
The trail of woes surrounding Nuix highlights the concern.
The ASX’s new corporate actions software, according to the ASX, allows issuers to complete smart online forms for the announcement of certain events, taking advantage of pre-populated data and validation to support minimum information requirements and regulatory compliance.
Before the announcement is released, automated validations are performed for compliance with ASX listing rules and with minimum global data and format standards.
“For the issuer, this helps provide greater certainty, reducing the need to provide amended or updated announcements,” it said.
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