FTC

The agency’s antitrust policy isn’t up to the challenges of the 21st century. The Federal Trade Commission is an agency adrift, squandering resources on trivial cases while failing to address the structural lack of competition that afflicts our economy. Here’s how to fix it.

The Federal Trade Commission plans to explore consumer protection issues raised by new technologies, including “smart TVs,” the agency announced. The agency has scheduled a seminar on Dec. 7 addressing questions including how much consumers understand about tracking of their TV-viewing, how the ad industry is using data about the programs people watch, and how best to protect consumers’ privacy.

The Federal Trade Commission alleges that Volkswagen deceived customers during a seven-year period by selling its diesel cars based on fraudulent claims made through its marketing campaigns. That campaign included Super Bowl ads, online social media campaigns and print advertising targeted to “environmentally conscious” consumers.

Sensing imminent regulation of native advertising, the Interactive Advertising Bureau is asking the Federal Trade Commission to proceed with caution. Threatening the future of native ads, the agency said it believed that online ads can be deceptive when they are formatted to closely resemble news stories or other editorial content.

YouTube Kids has drawn complaints from two consumer advocacy groups for junk food ads that appear regularly on the app’s videos. These groups contend that online video aimed at children has become too commercialized and is not held to the same standards as cable and broadcast TV, which broadcasters should read with interest.

The Federal Trade Commission is calling for original research into privacy and security issues, including how “vulnerabilities” might be exploited to harm consumers. The agency will address the research on Jan. 14 at a conference about privacy. “We want to increase the FTC’s engagement with the technology community in order to more effectively encourage innovation that is protective of consumer privacy and security,” FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said.

Joshua Wright, one of two GOP commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission, is leaving the agency Aug. 24 to return to his prior post at George Mason University as professor of law and director of the Global Antitrust Institute at the Law and Economics Center. Wright has served on the commission since January 2013.

The FCC is about to muscle in on the FTC’s privacy turf and the FTC is pushing back. Since the 1999 Geocities case, the Federal Trade Commission has been the nation’s de facto privacy cop, bringing  more than 150 privacy and data security cases.  But the net neutrality order could make the FCC a much bigger player in privacy enforcement.

he Federal Trade Commission is embracing its nickname as the Federal Technology Commission, opening up a new Office of Technology Research and Investigation.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google skewed its search results to favor its own services over the competition, staffers at the Federal Trade Commission have found. The FTC report finds Google lifted results for its own shopping, travel and business services while pushing down its rivals. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here, and publishers in partnerships with Google probably should.

The Federal Trade Commission will hold a workshop in November examining privacy issues raised by tracking consumers across devices for ad purposes. The agency is seeking comment on a host of questions, including how ad companies are approaching cross-device tracking, how companies can give consumers more control over cross-device tracking techniques, and whether the current industry self-regulatory programs apply to different cross-device tracking techniques.

An infomercial vendor has agreed to an $8 million settlement over claims that it used deceptive practices to overcharge customers. Allstar Marketing Group, which sells items including the Snuggie and Perfect Brownie Pan, will be required to reform its advertising and ordering processes as part of the deal with the Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General’s office.

As consumers buy up fitness trackers, Internet-connected thermostats and even Web-enabled cars and toothbrushes, the Federal Trade Commission has a message: It’s watching. The agency is warning that as millions of new smart devices make people’s daily lives more convenient, they’re also collecting reams of personal information that raise new privacy and data security concerns.

The FTC doesn’t think that Sony’s claims that its PlayStation Vita was game changing were accurate. Sony Computer Entertainment America has agreed to settle FTC charges that it deceived consumers with false ad claims about the “game changing” technological features of Vita during its U.S. launch campaign in late 2011 and early 2012. The FTC also targeted ad agency Deutsch for both its traditional advertising and a social media effort. In fact, the FTC said this is the first its charged any agency or company with deceptive conduct related to Twitter posts.

“The Federal Trade Commission is becoming, for better or for worse, the Federal Technology Commission,” said Geoffrey Manne, executive director of the International Center for Law and Economics, at a recent Washington conference. On Friday, the FTC turns 100 years old. Here’s the story of how it became Washington’s go-to technology fixer.

The agency is giving back $16 million in refunds to more than 18,000 customers of American Tax Relief, which advertised heavily on TV, radio and the Internet. The company promised taxpayers overwhelmed with debts to the Internal Revenue Service that it could significantly reduce their burden.

The Federal Trade Commission is back up to its full strength Wednesday after the Senate voted 95-1 to confirm Terrell McSweeny to be the third Democratic commissioner on the five-member agency, giving the Democrats on the commission a majority. Having five commissioners is critical to merger rulings, which require a majority vote to block or intervene in a transaction.

A Federal Trade Commission study shows over 93% compliance with placement guidelines for alcohol advertising. The fourth major study focused on alcohol industry compliance with self-regulatory guidelines, including those designed to address concerns about youth access to alcohol marketing. The findings also include how companies allocate access marketing dollars: 31.9% of expenditures were directed to advertising in traditional media such as TV, radio, magazine and newspaper.

ADT’s on-air “independent” experts have set off all kinds of alarms at the Federal Trade Commission, which found that the home security company failed to disclose that the experts, which appeared on more than 40 different media outlets, were paid to endorse ADT’s products and services.

Nissan has agreed to settle deceptive advertising charges made by the FTC over a 30-second ad. In it, a little black dune buggy can be seen stuck in sand on a steep hill. Suddenly, a red Frontier speeds to the rescue of the dune buggy and pushes it up and over the hill, to the cheers of amazed onlookers. And no, the Frontier pickup can’t really do that. In fact, the FTC complaint says both the truck and the buggy were dragged to the top of the hill by cables.

Sensa and L’Occitane are among those ordered to pay millions as the agency calls on TV stations and publishers to screen ads.

The workshop, called “Blurred Lines: Advertising or Content,” focused on whether publishers and advertisers are doing enough to keep consumers from mistaking native ads — which are meant to closely resemble non-sponsored content — from the content itself. While the ad industry mounted a vigorous defense, detractors blasted the practice

The agency begins to grapple with the privacy implications of connected devices.

U.S. antitrust authorities from the Federal Trade Commission have cleared the Omnicom Group and Publicis Groupe merger. “The expiration of the HSR [Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act] review period in the U.S. and the approvals received in other jurisdictions satisfy some of the conditions necessary for the transaction to close,” Publicis Groupe saidt.

Jessica Rich — the Federal Trade Commission’s front line to advertising regulation as director of the agency’s consumer protection bureau — is energetic and organized. She’ll need to be to tackle the ambitious agenda she laid out in her keynote speech to more than 100 marketers and advertising attorneys during the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council’s annual conference in New York.

Mike O’Rielly, the GOP nominee for the FCC, and Terrell McSweeny, the Democratic nominee for the Federal Trade Commission, couldn’t be more different. The contrasts were on display during the Senate commerce committee nomination hearing, the first major step in filling out two agencies that have been short-handed for several months.

Rather than wrapping up its months-long review of the deal as expected, the Federal Trade Commission is busy sending out additional requests for information. The latest round of questionnaires went out to TV station owners that stand to be affected by the merger of the two measurement giants, according to sources.

It’s not cheap working to get the government to clear a high-profile transaction. Year-to-date, Arbitron has spent $9.4 million in hiring consultants, lawyers and other expenses looking to persuade the Federal Trade Commission to allow Nielsen to buy it for $1.26 billion.

The Federal Trade Commission tells Google, Bing and Yahoo among others to clarify what sort of material is coming up in search results.

If you’ve got a website, you could have a problem. Welcome to the COPPA Rule, a complicated FTC regulation with (a) potentially expensive ramification, and (b) some new provisions about to take effect.

President Obama turned to Biden aide Terrell McSweeney to fill the fifth open seat on the Federal Trade Commission. McSweeney’s ties with Vice President Joe Biden began in 2005 when she served as his deputy chief of staff and as counsel on the Senate Judiciary committee, ending in 2008 when she became Biden’s issues director for the Obama campaign in 2008. Most recently, McSweeney has served as senior counsel of competition policy in the antitrust division at the Department of Justice.

Nielsen is nearing completion of the Federal Trade Commission’s request for more information regarding its proposed merger with Arbitron, CEO David Calhoun said Thursday. The Nielsen chief declined to speculate how long it will take the regulators to review the documentation, but offered up “somewhere between 60 days and four months” before the FTC responds.

Advertising delivered through social media or on mobile phones needs to abide by the same requirements that apply to newspaper and television messages, the Federal Trade Commission says.

The Federal Trade Commission on Friday asked for additional information from Nielsen and Arbitron regarding their proposed merger, the companies said. The request could indicate regulatory complications that will prolong the closing of the merger.