Commentary: Bright smiles abound after FTC's teeth-whitening victory

(June 17, 2013) -- Last month the Fourth Circuit handed the Commission a solid victory, 3-0, in the case of North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC. This was a win on several different fronts. In the case itself, the agency protected non-dentist providers of teeth-whitening services, allowing them to offer their services free of inappropriate threats from the state dental board. More broadly, the agency put limits on the discretion of self-interested regulatory boards, even in the face of an aggressive amicus campaign by two dozen professional associations. And more broadly still, the case brought to a conclusion the agency’s twelve-year project to rationalize the law of state-action immunity....

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