FTC Chair Lina Khan’s mission to destroy Amazon will harm millions of consumers

The Federal Trade Commission and 17 states have filed a high-profile antitrust lawsuit against Amazon that could force major changes to the popular Amazon Prime service — which would be bad news for its 167 million American members.

Tuesday’s move is hardly surprising.

After all, FTC Chair Lina Khan rose to prominence by calling for antitrust enforcement against Amazon when she was still a Yale University law student and has been a vocal critic of the company ever since.

Unfortunately, the case is reminiscent of Captain Ahab’s doomed pursuit of Moby Dick — it is guided more by desire and ideology than a reasonable assessment of the costs and benefits.

The result will be a wasteful battle all but guaranteed to founder in court.