Amazon seeks recusal of FTC Chair Khan, a longtime company critic

Recusal motions at the agency are rare, but there are significant examples regarding the FTC chair, said William E. Kovacic, a former Republican FTC chair and a professor at George Washington University Law School. In the 1970s, then-FTC Chairman Michael Pertschuk withdrew from an inquiry into TV advertising aimed at children, a tactic about which he was critical. In the 1960s, a court disqualified then-FTC chairman Paul Rand Dixon from a case because he had served as chief counsel and staff director of a Senate subcommittee investigating the same issues.