By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-7-21
The Federal Trade Commission has signaled it is rethinking its enforcement principles regarding its Sec. 5 authority to prevent unfair methods of competition, saying under the current FTC guidance, the Commission “has doubled down on the Commission’s longstanding failure to investigate and pursue ‘unfair methods of competition.’”
In a 3-2 vote along partisan lines, the Democratic majority of commissioners rescinded an Obama-era (2015) bipartisan policy statement on its antitrust enforcement.
“[T]he 2015 Statement abrogates the Commission’s congressionally mandated duty to use its expertise to identify and combat unfair methods of competition even if they do not violate a separate antitrust statute,” the majority statement read. » Read More