Political gridlock could prevent FTC from getting disgorgement powers

Congressional backers of giving the Federal Trade Commission more powers to recover ill-gotten gains will need a host of skills. But the most important one may be ensuring they can count to 60.

Protecting businesses from telemarketing scams

The Federal Trade Commission has long protected individual consumers from scams, but now it’s devoting more attention to scams that target businesses. This reflects a fundamental broadening of the agency’s sense of its mission.

Current Issue: 804

Next Issue: Jun 7, 2022

Happy Days Are Here Again

Sober but cautiously optimistic, more than 2,600 lawyers and law-enforcement officers gathered in Washington from March 28 to March 30 for their annual Rites of Spring. It was a record level of...

DOJ antitrust chiefs strut their stuff

Justice Department officials were crowing as they ticked off their recent successes in a panel discussion on Wednesday morning attended by more than 100 lawyers. It’s been a “nice run of terrific...

New issues arising as new apps multiply

The exploding world of mobile technology is reshaping the online privacy landscape and highlighting the challenges of providing privacy to consumers who have no idea how much of their personal...

Former funnyman is serious about antitrust

Sen. Al Franken, a comedian-turned-statesman, created a stir at the annual awards dinner of the American Bar Association’s spring forum last week when he whipped out his cell phone and started...

Tim Muris questions FTC activism

Former Federal Trade Commission chairman Timothy Muris recently recalled that he was struck by something he saw while speaking at the first senior staff retreat of Jon Leibowitz, the current agency...

Lawyers flock to hear Indian and Chinese antitrust officials

The room was packed—almost every seat was taken-- as officials from the Competition Commission of India, China’s State Administration for Industry & Commerce (SAIC) and China’s National Development...

Officials say no friction between FTC, CFPB

Ever since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau came into existence in July of last year, questions have arisen about how this new enforcement agency, with its sweeping jurisdiction, would...

Help me, Uncle Sam: I hate the way the story ends

The popular role-playing video game “Mass Effect 3” is based on fiction, but some players’ anger at the game’s controversial ending is very real.

Fuzzy reception for wireless spectrum sales

Executives from Verizon Communications and Comcast went toe-to-toe with skeptical Democratic senators, consumer advocates and others on Verizon Wireless’s controversial multibillion-dollar deal to...

California puts the screws to online sexual predators

Kamala D. Harris, California Attorney General, has announced that the three largest online dating companies have agreed to try to shut out electronic predators by checking the names of new...

FTC’s online privacy report released

The FTC’s long-awaited online privacy framework has been greeted with relief as providing clearer rules for the road, as well as with some skepticism that it leaves a murky path going forward.

Some states doubtful on CFPB data-sharing

Attorneys General tend to think of Richard Cordray, the former Ohio attorney general who now serves as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as one of their own.

Cordray back on the Hill for more questioning

In his most recent appearance on Capitol Hill, Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, faced a barrage of attacks by Republican members of the House Financial...

Graco-ITW

The FTC has given conditional approval to a deal by Graco Inc., a paint equipment manufacturer, to acquire spray-paint equipment operations from Illinois Tool Works (ITW) for $650 million.

Robocalls

Alleging that a robocall operation was responsible for bombarding consumers with billions of calls, the FTC voted in favor of a settlement order that bans a California telemarketing business, SBN...

ProMedica

The FTC ruled that ProMedica Health Systems’ acquisition of a rival, St. Luke’s Hospital, was anticompetitive and ordered the Toledo, Ohio-based company to sell the hospital to an FTC-approved...

Humana, Arcadian

The Justice Department has approved Humana Inc.’s deal to buy Arcadian Management Services Inc. on the condition that it divest Arcadian’s Medicare Advantage business in Arizona, Arkansas,...

Muni bonds

In another victory for DOJ in its investigation into corruption in the municipal bond market, a financial investor who purchased municipal tax liens at auctions in New Jersey pleaded guilty March...