The scariest person in Silicon Valley is a 34-year-old in DC (video)

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan will reportedly meet with Amazon ( AMZN ) representatives next week in what may be the last face-to-face meeting between the parties before the Commission files an antitrust lawsuit against the e-commerce giant.

Khan, who became chair in 2021 at the age of 32, has made challenging Big Tech a cornerstone of her tenure at the FTC. She has come face to face with many of the biggest names in the industry, pursuing major lawsuits against Facebook’s parent company, Meta (META) and Microsoft (MSFT).

Not all of them were victories, which led to some political resonance in Washington and skepticism that its strategy was to lose and therefore require Congress to change antitrust laws.

Khan, now 34, rose to fame after publishing a 2017 article in the Yale Law Journal titled “The Amazon Antitrust Paradox.”

The article argued that modern antitrust laws are ill-equipped to combat the tech industry’s anticompetitive behavior because they focus too much on pricing as a means of determining consumer harm.

She argued that these regulations need to be rethought to get Big Tech companies to act. Now, as chairwoman, she is trying to stop these companies.

“Love her or hate her, (Khan) has a very clear vision for the role of the FTC and the role of the chairman,” former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Harold Furchtgott-Roth told Yahoo Finance. “This vision is very aggressive and ambitious, and she is taking every step possible to make it a reality.”

The FTC declined to comment.

American control of Big Tech

Khan is not the only government official going after the country’s largest technology companies.

The Department of Justice and a group of attorneys general are suing Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) Google in two combined cases filed during President Trump’s administration, accusing the company of abusing its market power in search and search advertising to squeeze out competition.

Those cases go to trial next month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which dismissed some of the claims.

Google said it “looks forward to demonstrating at trial that promoting and distributing our services is both legal and competitive.”

Khan has cases against several other giants. In one case against Meta, which owns Facebook, the FTC, led by Khan, tried to block Meta’s acquisition of the virtual reality fitness company Within.

Her agency is also trying to force the social media giant to separate Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in a separate case filed before Khan took over as chairman.

Another target: Microsoft. Khan fought to prevent the Windows maker from completing its acquisition of “Call of Duty” developer Activision Blizzard (ATVI).

But Khan’s biggest test will be a challenge against Amazon. According to Politico, the lawsuit will likely focus on Amazon’s e-commerce business and whether it places unfair pressure on sellers who use its marketplace.

These arguments echo complaints filed by the state of California and Washington, which argued that Amazon’s pressure on these sellers forced them to raise prices outside of Amazon’s platform.

Amazon has denied these claims, saying sellers set their own prices and that Amazon makes no effort to prevent them from offering lower prices elsewhere. The case filed by Washington was dismissed by a judge last year, and the California case is pending.

If the FTC decides to sue Amazon, it will be Khan’s second case against the company. A separate lawsuit filed by the Commission in July accuses Amazon of deceiving consumers into signing up for Prime and intentionally making it harder to cancel those subscriptions.

Amazon declined to comment.

Shock in Washington

Khan’s efforts, however, were not always successful. In July, a federal judge blocked the commission’s request for an injunction preventing Microsoft from completing the deal. The FTC has since dropped its internal lawsuit and will likely negotiate with Microsoft over potential concessions as part of the deal.

The Commission also failed to prevent Meta from purchasing VR company Within.

During a July hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, some Republicans sharply criticized Khan’s failures, calling her a “tyrant” and arguing that her leadership of the agency had been a “disaster.”

But at least one expert says that despite its recent missteps, the FTC is headed in the right direction.

“I think the FTC is doing the right thing by trying to stop mergers and challenging the rules for setting its own preferences,” Stanford Law School professor Mark A. Lemley told Yahoo Finance.

“I think they have encountered a 40-year-old (and outdated) antitrust approach that has resulted in them losing cases in court that they certainly should have won,” Lemley added. “It’s not obvious to me how we can change this judicial resistance without legislation.”

Khan’s past losses against tech companies also have little to do with the FTC’s chances in any potential case against Amazon, explained Eleanor Fox, a professor at New York University School of Law.

“I know the press is giving a lot of importance to the fact that the first case was lost and the second case was lost, but the fact is that … it was only lost because the facts were proven,” Fox said. “And that really doesn’t say much about what’s going to happen next time in a big case.”

Khan’s potential dispute with Amazon would be one of the most important battles between the Biden administration and Big Tech. Whether it comes to fruition at all may depend on Khan’s showdown with the company next week.

Daniel Howley is a technology editor at Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter @DanielHowley.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.

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