Federal Trade Commission ftc/index.shtml

1. Federal Trade Commission http://www.ftc.gov/index.shtml

2. A Brief History of the Birth of the Federal Trade Commission Click Here How to File a Complaint Court Case

3. About….. • 1914 by President Wilson • Employees today: 1200 • Most hold Marketing Degrees • Mission: is consumer protection and the elimination and prevention of what anti-competitive business practices, such as monopolies. • An Act against trusts • Clayton Act, a key antitrust statute

4. What is a Trust? • A special trust is a business formed with intent to monopolize business, to restrain trade, or to fix prices. • Price fixing – illegal • When competitors meet and decide on a price to charge consumers…. • Us vs. consumers - illegal • Anti-trust laws = "competition laws"

5. Duties of the FTC • investigating issues raised by reports from consumers and businesses, congressional inquiries, or reports in the media. • These issues include: • false advertising and other forms of fraud • Product safety issues – RECALLS • Product liabilities • One of the Federal Trade Commission's other major focuses is identity theft • Example: • In 1984,the FTC began to regulate the funeral home industry in order to protect consumers from deceptive practices

6. Government regulations to control:use text to look-up definitions of each • price fixing • price discrimination • resale price maintenance • minimum price • unit pricing • price advertising

7. Court Cases: F.T.C. v. Cyberspace.com • the FTC found that sending consumers’ mail that appeared to be a check for $3.50 to the consumer attached to an invoice was deceptive when cashing the check constituted an agreement to pay a monthly fee for internet access. • The back of the check, in fine print, disclosed the existence of this agreement to the consumer. • The FTC concluded that the practice was misleading to reasonable consumers, especially since there was evidence that less than one percent of the 225,000 individuals and businesses billed for the internet service actually logged on.

8. Federal Trade Commission, Plaintiff, v. 7 Day Marketing, Inc. • The marketers of the 7 Day Miracle Cleanse Program, an herbal colon-cleansing program, have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they falsely claimed that their program would cure cancer and other serious diseases. • Among other things, the settlements broadly ban them from involvement in future infomercials for any product, service, or program, except for infomercials for informational publications, and from advertising health-related products in the future in any medium.

9. Result: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/02/7day.shtm • One of the orders contains a monetary judgment of $14,455,123, which is suspended based on the defendants’ inability to pay. • A separate settlement with Dieter Ammann also includes a monetary judgment of $14,455,123, which is suspended upon payment of $70,000, and also is based on his inability to pay. • Under both orders, the full judgment will be imposed if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.

10. DIRECTV, Comcast to Pay Total of $3.21 Million for Do Not Call Violations • DIRECTV to Pay $2.31 Million for Violating Telemarketing Sales Rule • Comcast to Pay $900,000 for Calling Consumers Who Asked Not to be Called Again • Federal Trade Commission charges that they violated the Do Not Call provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), including charges that they or their telemarketers called consumers who specifically had told the companies not to call them again. • In addition, a DIRECTV telemarketer and its principals have agreed to pay a $115,000 penalty for making prerecorded sales calls to consumers who had asked not to be called. • http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/04/directv.shtm