The Federal Trade Commission will crack down on practices that may harm consumers at the gasoline pump and seek to deter “unlawful” mergers in the oil and gas industry, FTC Chair Lina Khan told the White House in a letter last week. The letter, obtained by Reuters, was addressed to White House economic adviser Brian Deese and promised to start an investigation of abuses in the “franchise market” for retail fuel stations, among other steps. Deese, in an initial Aug. 11 letter to Khan, had asked the FTC to investigate why “gas prices tend to rise more quickly to adjust to spikes in oil prices than they fall when the price of oil declines.” Khan replied: “I am especially interested in ways that large national chains may ‘restore’ higher prices through collusive practices, and I will direct our staff to investigate any signs of this […]