Trump selects antitrust lawyer to lead FTC

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has picked Joseph Simons, a veteran antitrust lawyer who has represented tech giants like Microsoft, to lead the Federal Trade Commission at a time of broad bipartisan concern over corporate consolidation and big deals in the waiting, White House officials said Thursday.

Trump has also named Noah Phillips, chief counsel for Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rohit Chopra, a fellow at a consumer advocacy group, to fill the remaining two seats at the agency, said Natalie Strom, assistant press secretary at the White House.

The consumer protection and competition agency has been led by just two commissioners over the last 10 months.

Trump’s other leading antitrust official, Makan Delrahim, was recently confirmed to lead competition cases at the Justice Department.

The nominations will be reviewed by Congress but are expected to be approved.

Under Simons, who led the competition bureau of the Federal Trade Commission during the George W. Bush administration, the agency is expected take a free-markets and conservative approach to antitrust issues, maintaining decadeslong interpretations of competition laws that put consumer welfare and the efficiencies of markets at the center of enforcement actions and merger reviews.

But the traditional antitrust perspective could be tested by new skepticism over the power of big internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon. Politicians from both parties, and many consumer interest advocates and academics, have called for greater restraints on tech companies that have quickly expanded their dominance in digital advertising, commerce and public opinion.