The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the U.S. government that was established in 1915 and charged with keeping American business competition free and fair. The FTC has no jurisdiction over banks and common carriers, which are under the supervision of other governmental agencies. It has five members, not more than three of whom may be members of the same political party, appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate, for seven-year terms. The act was part of the program of President Wilson to check the growth of monopoly and preserve competition as an effective regulator of business.

What is the FTC? The FTC stands for Federal Trade Commission. The Federal Trade Commission is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1914 to help prevent unfair business practices, deception, fair trade practices, and unfair competition. The FTC’s mission is to protect the consumers by enacting laws to ensure that businesses cannot cheat people out of money and keep businesses from being unethical and immoral. The FTC takes complaints about businesses and investigates them for fraud or unfair labor practices every year (Silbersack, 2013).

The paper will serve as a historical background overview of how the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC) came into existence. The paper will also break down the key components for which the FTC covers, such as deceptive advertising, baiting and switching and consumer fraud. There will be examples

In 1890, the United States Congress passed the first Anti-Trust Law, called the Sherman Act, in an attempt to combat anti trusts and as a “comprehensive charter of economic liberty aimed at preserving free and unfettered competition as the rule of trade.” (The Antitrust Laws). Twenty four years later in 1914, Congress passed two more Anti-Trust Laws: the Federal Trade Commission Act, which created the Federal Trade Commission whose aim is to protect American consumers, and the Clayton act, which fills in any loopholes in the Sherman Act. Ultimately, these three Anti Trust Acts regulate three core problems within the market: restricting the creation of cartels, restricting the “mergers and acquisitions of organizations which could substantially lessen competition”, and prohibit the creation of monopolies in the market (“The Antitrust Laws”).

ALJ On November 13, 2015, A Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) held that LabMD did not violate Section 5(a)of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) by failing to provide reasonable security for personal information on computer networks. This is the first decision that limits the authority of FTC to regulate businesses that fail to appropriately safeguard their consumers’ electronic personal information.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been in protecting consumer privacy on the internet by targeting deceptive and unfair trade practices since the act was establish in 1914( Halbert & Ingulli, 2012, p. 253). According to Halbert & Ingulli (2012) the FTC banned

Multiple consumer protection agencies or independent bodies can assist consumers to resolve their complaints and provide advice about consumer related matters. Two of which are NSW Fair Trading and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The Federal Trade Commission actively enforces antitrust laws to organizations within the healthcare field, including to Physician Hospital Organizations (PHOs). A PHO is a vehicle that enables hospitals and physicians to work cooperatively toward accomplishing several objectives (Physician, 2015). According to Susan Creighton (2004), competitive issues among PHOs can occur when a PHO acts as a contracting arrangement for a network of healthcare providers. The network can consist of groups of physicians, one hospital or several, and also some other entities that offer a bundle of healthcare services to insurance companies and other payors (Creighton, 2004). The FTC states that the core antitrust law principle is that it is illegal for competitors to agree on prices they will charge, except where they come together and integrate in a legitimate joint venture that results in efficiencies or other precompetitive benefits that outweigh the restriction of competition (Creighton, 2004). Agreements that violate the antitrust law can be determined as per se illegal. Per se illegal means that activities, such as horizontal price fixing, or group boycotts, have been conclusively presumed to restrain competition unreasonably even without a study of the market that they occurred in, or an analysis of their actual effect on competition, or their purpose (Burke, et al., 2009). South Georgia Health Partners are an example of a PHO that was charged by the commission on a per se illegal

And up under the directors there are eight divisions: Division of Advertising Practices, Division of Consumer and Business Education, Division of Consumer Response and Operations, Division of Enforcement, Division of Financial Practices, Division of Litigation Technology and Analysis, Division of Marketing Practices and Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. The Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection has about seven divisions and eight regional offices. There is the East Central Region(Cleveland), Midwest Region(Chicago), Northeast Region(New York), Northwest Region(Seattle), Southeast Region(Atlanta), Southwest Region(Dallas), and the Western Region(Los Angles/ San Francisco). And this allows them to respond better to diversity of the US

This essay will review the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (as amended) (‘CPUTs’) to assess how they are responsible for the operation of the Internal Market and consider whether the CPUTs have accomplished its objective of consumer protection. This essay will first explain the Internal Market and the significance of regulation and then proceed to demonstrate how the CPUTs enable the Internal Market to function properly and its protection of consumers.

The Federal Reserve System has three branches: the Board of Governors, The Federal Open Market Committee, and Reserve Banks. The Federal Reserve System (Fed) supplies and regulates America’s money to all the banks. The Board of Governors is the main authority of the three branches of the Fed, and it supervises other banks. The Federal Open Market Committee is the most prominent policymaker of the three branches and regulates the supply of money in the economy. Federal Reserve Banks serve other banks, this is why they are called banker’s banks. There are twelve Federal Reserve Banks which represent different states and these “districts” share data for monetary policies. The future role of monetary policy is vital

The first board of Federal regulation was established in 1887” congress created the Interstate Commerce Commision to resolve increasing controversies between the railroads and shippers”. The government must make sure that there is enough competition to keep prices low the quality products high.The role is to maintain efficiencies with natural monopoly and helps avoid market failures. It regulates activity by insuring that companies have healthy competion and no one company holds a monopoly in the market place. Some of the things that the government regulates are the banking industry, transportation. Communications and the airline indusrties. The government used to regulate the air traffic controlers making it safer for pilots and consumers. When the air traffic controlers were deregulated it became evident that it is less safe for pilots and consumers to fly. The air traffic controlers work longer

FTF (Fair Trade Federation) is an organization that strengthens and promotes North American organizations fully committed to fair trade. This federation started at the late 1970s when alternative individual trade organizations began to hold conferences for groups working in fair trade. At the beginning, this organization was called the NAATO(North American Alternative Trade Organization) but changed its name to FTF(Fair Trade Federation) in 1995. The FTF has their base on the World Fair Trade Organization, upholding each other’s principles; Create Opportunities for Economically and Socially Marginalized Producers, Develop Transparent and Accountable Relationships, Build Capacity, Promote Fair Trade, Pay Promptly and Fairly, Support Safe and

The Securities and Exchange Commission has the mission of protecting investors by maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets. The SEC does this in a number of ways, and firms need to pay attention to these ways in order to ensure SEC compliance. The SEC has enforcement authority over a number of areas related to the nation's capital markets, including insider trading, accounting fraud, and providing false information. The SEC's jurisdiction extends to all securities that are traded publicly. Privately-held companies do not need to register with the SEC (SEC.gov, 2012).

The Trading Standards Institute enforces consumer related legislation as determined by central government. The variety of this legislation is vast and is always evolving. In view of this changing environment, the Trading Standards Institute is dedicated to engaging with central government and other proposals, displayed in their responses to the various consultations that concern consumer protection issues and/or the Trading Standards profession. (TSI 2010)