Download An Overview of the Federal Trade Commission and more Slides Competition Law and Policy in PDF only on Docsity! Federal Trade Commission Introduction • The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is a United States federal regulatory agency designed to monitor and prevent anticompetitive, deceptive or unfair business practices. • The agency pursues enforcement against unlawful business practices; shares expertise with both U.S. and international government agencies; develops policy and research tools through hearings, workshops and conferences; and creates educational programs to share best practices with consumers and businesses. Key provisions in the FTC Act • Section 1: This establishes the FTC, specifying that the agency should consist of five commissioners appointed by the president. It limits the number of commissioners of the same political party to three. • Section 5: As amended, this part states: "Unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, are hereby declared unlawful." This section "is intentionally very vague" to give the FTC its mandate to protect consumers, explains Collins. • Sections 6, 9, and 20: These give the FTC investigative powers, such as to subpoena evidence related to unfair competition. The FTC Act has helped US commerce and business practices in many ways, including: • Protecting consumers from false advertising: This can help both businesses and individuals. "From a macroeconomic perspective, you want to encourage consumers to go out and make purchases. In order for that to happen, they have to have confidence that the things that are being advertised to them or represented to them are, in fact, what they represent to be," says Collins. • Preventing illegal monopolies: It's not necessarily illegal to have so much business success that a company becomes dominant within an industry. But the FTC can go after companies that illegally monopolize industries, such as trying to purposefully block competitors from having a fair shot.
