Author: chris

Professor Gerald Berk described the FTC as a product of “creative syncretism.” Berk explaind: “those who built regulated competition were successful precisely because they reached across historical, institutional, and cultural boundaries to find resources, which they creatively recombined in experiments in business regulation, public administration, accounting and trade associations.”[1] The result was an entity with…

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] When a witness testifies before Congress using a pseudonym and wearing a mask, it might mean trouble for an industry. In a March 1976 hearing, a “James Clark” testified to his…

In a June 1999 House Committee markup session of the bill that passed as the GLBA, financial service industry lobbyists expected Democrats to raise privacy issues, but thought that Republicans would successfully oppose adding privacy provisions to the bill. An earlier attempt by Democratic Representative Ed Markey of Massachusetts in May had failed on a…

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] On this day 100 years ago, the Commission addressed an important matter–obtaining used furniture from the White House.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] The author has heard a rumor that many (a source said almost all) privacy cases come about from complaints by competitors. If that is the case, it’s nothing new. Competitors have…

“Puffing,” the expression of the seller’s subjective opinion of a product—usually embellished with superlatives—is a kind of falsity considered not to be misleading in American law. Puffing is ubiquitous in advertising, consider such claims such as “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” Puffing cannot include facts, and as such, the law assumes that consumers do not incorporate…

In defending the FTC’s jurisdiction and record on privacy matters, Commissioner Ohlhausen recently argued that the FTC has a long history in policing privacy–it brought cases even pre-internet. Commercial espionage was among the turn-of-the-century problems that the FTC was created to address. The FTC brought several matters in the 1910s, including a 1918 matter where it…

What does FTC history tell us about hacking back and taking action to engage in privacy self-defense? Back in 1918, it issued a cease and desist order against a company that dealt with nosy competitors by crashing delivery trucks into them. The FTC ordered the company to stop “causing any of [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″…

The FTC first met this week 100 years ago. On its fourth day operation (and again a week later), representatives of the coal industry appeared before the assembled commissioners to request an informal meeting. This was the beginning of the FTC as advice-giving body. A month later, the Dean of the Business School of Harvard…

On Tuesday, March 16, 1915, the FTC met in its first session. Not much happened on that first day. DC Supreme Court Justice J. Harry Covington administered the oath to the first five Commissioners, Joseph E. Davies, Edward N. Hurley, William J. Harris, Will H. Perry, and George Rublee. Rublee, although never confirmed by the…

If anyone’s interpretation of a claim could be used to prove a violation of the FTCA, all advertising would have to be very carefully crafted. Advertisers would have to excise humor and hyperbole, lest the Commission decided to take cases to protect the humorless and completely credulous. A too literal enforcement scheme would cause advertisers…

The Republican party is opposed to special privilege and to monopoly. It placed upon the statute-book the interstate commerce act of 1887, and the important amendments thereto, and the anti-trust act of 1890, and it has consistently and successfully enforced the provisions of these laws. It will take no backward step to permit the reestablishment…