White House antitrust adviser Tim Wu set to leave

“We had the rare opportunity in this administration to try to steer the giant battleship of antitrust policy in a new direction,” Wu said in a statement provided by the White House. “We have done more in the past two years than I ever imagined, and it has been the opportunity of a lifetime to work on this project with an extraordinarily talented group of colleagues at the White House and in the federal agencies. »

The New York Times previously reported Wu’s impending departure. POLITICO and other news outlets previously reported this summer that Wu planned to quit.

Biden’s executive order focused on increasing competition in sectors such as technology, health care, transportation and agriculture, and was designed to encourage agencies outside the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to focus their attention on antitrust issues.

Additionally, Wu helped lead the White House’s push on a largely unsuccessful attempt to pass new antitrust legislation targeting the tech sector.

« Over the past two years, the federal government has decided not only to reverse decades of erosion of antitrust enforcement, but also to rekindle a great American tradition of presidential leadership in competition policy, recalling the era of Franklin and Teddy Roosevelt, » the NEC director said. Brian Deese said in a statement. « Over the next two years, we will continue to institutionalize bipartisan, pro-competitive reforms across all agencies to lock in this progress for decades to come. »