By Jody Godoy and Lananh Nguyen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Commerce Fee Chair Lina Khan on Friday welcomed that corporations are weighing antitrust issues early of their dealmaking course of.

“When you see greater scrutiny of mergers, you can see greater deterrence of illegal mergers,” Khan advised the Council on Overseas Relations in New York. Khan was responding to a query in regards to the hostility she generally evokes from Wall Avenue buyers.

“As a law enforcer, I want people to be thinking about whether their deal is going to violate the law or not going to violate the law, so that’s progress,” she mentioned. “If you’re looking at it from the prism of deal fees and that sort of thing, I can see why it might be upsetting,” she mentioned, drawing laughter from the viewers.

Khan has drawn criticism from some within the enterprise group who say the FTC and Division of Justice’s shut scrutiny of pending offers has dried up the merger pipeline. In July, a pair of rich Democratic donors known as on Vice President Kamala Harris to interchange Khan if Harris is elected president.

There’s a necessity for extra empirical research of how antitrust enforcement impacts enterprise capital, Khan mentioned.