Federal Trade Commission
Official seal
Official seal
Agency overview
FormedSeptember 26, 1914
Preceding AgencyBureau of Corporations
JurisdictionFederal government of the United States
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
Employees1200 (2007)
Agency ExecutiveWilliam E. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The federal government of the United States is the central United States Governmental body established by the United States Constitution. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Kovacic, Chairman

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act. Independent agencies of the United States government are those that exist outside of the departments of the Executive branch. Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 (15 USC §§ 41-58 as amended) established the Federal Trade Commission (FTC a Bipartisan body of five members Its principal mission is the promotion of "consumer protection" and the elimination and prevention of what regulators perceive to be "anti-competitive" business practices. Consumer protection is a form of Government Regulation which protects the interests of Consumers For example a government may require businesses to disclose detailed

The Federal Trade Commission Act was one of President Wilson's major acts against trusts. The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 (15 USC §§ 41-58 as amended) established the Federal Trade Commission (FTC a Bipartisan body of five members Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28 1856—February 3 1924 was the twenty-eighth President of the United States. A special trust or business trust is business entity formed with intent to monopolize business to restrain trade, or to fix prices. Trusts and trust-busting were significant political concerns during the Progressive Era. Trust-busting is any government activity designed to break up trusts or monopolies. The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of reform which lasted from the 1890s to the 1920s Since its inception, the FTC has enforced the provisions of the Clayton Act, a key antitrust statute, as well as the provisions of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 41 et seq. The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 ( October 15[[ 914]] ch 323, codified at,) was enacted in the United States to add further substance to the U Title 15 of the United States Code outlines the role of the commerce and trade in the United States Code. Over time, the FTC has been delegated the enforcement of additional business regulation statutes and has promulgated a number of regulations (codified in Title 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations). The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR is the codification of the general and permanent rules and regulations (sometimes called administrative law) published in the


Organization of the Federal Trade Commission

Apex Building, built in 1938 (FTC headquarters)
Apex Building, built in 1938 (FTC headquarters)
FTC headquarters, Washington, D.C.
FTC headquarters, Washington, D.C.

FTC Chairmen and Commissioners

The Federal Trade Commission is headed by five Commissioners who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Under the FTC Act, no more than three Commissioners may be from the same political party. A Commissioner's term of office is seven years, and the terms are staggered so that in a given year at most one Commissioner's term expires (although in certain years, no Commissioner's term expires, and in years where Commissioners choose to step down, more than one new Commissioner may be named).

Bureau of Consumer Protection

The Bureau of Consumer Protection’s mandate is to protect consumers against "unfair" or deceptive acts or practices in commerce. With the written consent of the Commission, Bureau attorneys enforce federal laws related to consumer affairs as well as rules promulgated by the FTC. Its functions include investigations, enforcement actions, and consumer and business education. Areas of principal concern for this bureau are: advertising and marketing, financial products and practices, telemarketing fraud, privacy and identity protection etc. The bureau also is responsible for the United States National Do Not Call Registry. On June 27, 2003, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC opened the National Do Not Call Registry in order to comply with the Do-Not-Call Implementation

Under the FTC Act, the Commission has the authority, in most cases, to bring its actions in federal court through its own attorneys. In some consumer protection matters, the FTC appears with, or supports, the U.S. Department of Justice. For animal rights group see Justice Department (JD The United States Department of Justice ( DOJ) is a Cabinet department

Bureau of Competition


The FTC shares enforcement of antitrust laws with the Department of Justice. For animal rights group see Justice Department (JD The United States Department of Justice ( DOJ) is a Cabinet department However, while the FTC is responsible for civil enforcement of antitrust laws, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice has the power to bring both civil and criminal action in antitrust matters. The United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division is responsible for enforcing the antitrust laws of the United States.

Bureau of Economics


Activities of the FTC

Competition law
Basic concepts
Anti-competitive practices
Laws and doctrines

United States


  • European Community
    competition law
  • Irish Competition Law
  • Competition Act 1998 (U. Competition law history refers to attempts by governments to regulate Competitive markets for goods and services leading up to the modern competition or Antitrust The term "monopolization" refers to an offense under Section 2 of the American Sherman Antitrust Act, passed in 1890 In Economics and Business ethics, a coercive monopoly is a business concern that prohibits competitors from entering the field with the natural result being that Natural monopoly is a term used in Economics to refer to two different things In Economics and especially in the theory of Competition, barriers to entry are obstacles in the path of a firm which wants to enter a given Market In Economics, market power is the ability of a firm to alter the Market price of a good or service In Competition law, before deciding whether companies have significant Market power which would justify government intervention the test of Small but Significant and Non-transitory In Competition law the Relevant market defines the market in which one or more goods compete Merger control refers to the procedure of reviewing Mergers and acquisitions under Antitrust / competition law Anti-competitive practices are Business or Government practices that prevent and/or reduce Competition in a Market (see Restraint of trade Collusion is an agreement usually secretive which occurs between two or more persons to deceive mislead or defraud others of their legal rights or to obtain an objective forbidden A cartel is a formal (explicit agreement among firms Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve Price fixing is an agreement between business competitors to sell the same product or service at the same price Product bundling is a Marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale as one combined product Tying is the practice of making the sale of one good (the tying good to the De facto or De jure customer conditional on the purchase of a second distinctive Refusal to deal is one of several Anti-competitive practices forbidden in countries which have Free market economies In Competition law, a group boycott is a type of Secondary boycott in which two or more competitors in a Relevant market refuse to conduct business Exclusive dealing refers to when a retailer or wholesaler is ‘tied’ to purchase from a supplier on the understanding that no other distributor will be appointed or receive supplies Bid rigging is an illegal agreement between two or more competitors Dividing territories (also Market division) is an agreement by two companies to stay out of each other's way and reduce competition in the agreed-upon territories Conscious parallelism is a term used in Competition law to describe Price-fixing between competitors in an Oligopoly that occurs without an actual spoken Predatory pricing (also known as destroyer pricing) is the practice of a firm selling a product at very low price with the intent of driving competitors out of the Market In United States patent law, patent misuse is an Affirmative defense used in patent litigation when a Defendant has been accused to have Copyright misuse is an equitable defense against Copyright infringement in the United States based on the unreasonable conduct of United States antitrust law is the body of Laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior (monopoly and Unfair business practices. The Sherman Antitrust Act ( Sherman Act, July 2, 1890, ch 647,) was the first United States Federal statute to limit Cartels and The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 ( October 15[[ 914]] ch 323, codified at,) was enacted in the United States to add further substance to the U The Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 (or Anti-Justice League Discrimination Act,) is a United States federal law that prohibits what were considered at the time of passage The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 (15 USC §§ 41-58 as amended) established the Federal Trade Commission (FTC a Bipartisan body of five members The Merger guidelines are a set of internal rules promulgated by the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ in conjunction with the The essential facilities doctrine (sometimes also referred to as the essential facility doctrine) is a Legal doctrine which describes a particular type of claim of The Noerr-Pennington doctrine is a doctrine of United States Antitrust law set forth by the United States Supreme Court in a pair of cases which The rule of reason is a doctrine developed by the United States Supreme Court in its interpretation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. European Community competition law is one of the areas of authority of the European Union. Irish Competition Law is the Irish body of legal rules designed to ensure fairness and freedom in the Marketplace. The Competition Act 1998 is the current major source of competition policy in the UK along with Enterprise Act 2002. K. )


Enforcement authorities and organizations
edit box

The FTC carries out (parties) its mission by investigating issues raised by reports from consumers and businesses, pre-merger notification filings, congressional inquiries, or reports in the media. The Trade Practices Act 1974 is an act of the Parliament of Australia. The International Competition Network is an informal virtual network that seeks to facilitate cooperation between Competition law authorities globally A competition regulator is a Government agency, typically a statutory authority, sometimes called an economic regulator, which regulates and enforces "Popular press" redirects here note that the University of Wisconsin Press publishes under the imprint "The Popular Press" These issues include, for instance, false advertising and other forms of fraud. False advertising is the use of false or misleading statements in Advertising. In the broadest sense a fraud is a Deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual FTC investigations may pertain to a single company or an entire industry. If the results of the investigation reveal unlawful conduct, the FTC may seek voluntary compliance by the offending business through a consent order, file an administrative complaint, or initiate federal litigation. A consent judgment is a final binding Judgment in a case in which both parties agree by Stipulation, to a particular outcome Under the FTC Act, the federal courts retain their traditional authority to issue equitable relief, including the appointment of receivers, monitors, the imposition of asset freezes to guard against the spoliation of funds, immediate access to business premises to preserve evidence, and other relief including financial disclosures and expedited discovery. In law equitable remedies are the remedies developed and granted by the old courts of equity, such as the Court of Chancery in England and still available today In numerous cases, the FTC employs this authority to combat serious consumer deception or fraud. Additionally, the FTC has rulemaking power to address concerns regarding industry-wide practices. In Administrative law, rulemaking refers to the process that executive and independent agencies use to create or promulgate, Rules promulgated under this authority are known as Trade Rules.

In the mid-1990s, the FTC launched the fraud sweeps concept where the agency and its federal, state, and local partners filed simultaneous legal actions against multiple telemarketing fraud targets. The first sweeps operation was Project Telesweep[1] in July 1995 which cracked down on 100 business opportunity scams.

In 1984,[2] the FTC began to regulate the funeral service industry in order to protect consumers from deceptive practices. The FTC Funeral Rule[3] requires funeral homes to provide all customers (and potential customers) with a General Price List ("GPL"), specifically outlining goods and services in the funeral industry, as defined by the FTC, and a listing of their prices. By law, the GPL must be presented to all individuals that ask, no one is to be denied a written, retainable copy of the GPL. In 1996, the FTC instituted the Funeral Rule Offenders Program (FROP), under which "funeral homes make a voluntary payment to the U. S. Treasury or appropriate state fund for an amount less than what would likely be sought if the Commission authorized filing a lawsuit for civil penalties. In addition, the funeral homes participate in the NFDA compliance program, which includes a review of the price lists, on-site training of the staff, and follow-up testing and certification on compliance with the Funeral Rule. The Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMIF represents the interests of Motor "[2]

One of the Federal Trade Commission other large focuses is identity theft. Identity theft is a term used to refer to Fraud that involves stealing money or getting other benefits by pretending to be someone else The FTC serves as a federal repository for individual consumer complaints regarding identity theft. Even though the FTC does not resolve individual complaints, it does use the aggregated information to determine where federal action might be taken. The complaint form is available online or by phone (1-877-ID-THEFT).

See also


  1. ^ Business Opportunity Scam "Epidemic"
  3. ^ Federal Trade Commission

External links

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