Author: chris

Under the common law, civil actions could be brought for deception involving false statements between the buyer and seller, however, successful suit required a showing of injury. The victim would recover the difference in value between the product as sold and as stated. Thus, recovery was limited and the individual would not have strong incentives…

Thomas C. Blaisdell’s 1932 analysis of the agency concluded that it “has been little more than a body for the regulation of the trade practices of ‘small business.’ This is contrary to the expectation and plan of its founders, who conceived a body to protect both small business and the consumer…”[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left…

E. Pendelton Herring noted in 1934 that, “Making political enemies was soon found to be an incident in the routine of (FTC) administration. The discharging of official duties meant interfering with business, and often ‘big business.’”[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″…

We believe that true popular government, justice and prosperity go hand in hand, and so believing, it is our purpose to secure that large measure of general prosperity which is the fruit of legitimate and honest business, fostered by equal justice and by sound progressive laws. We demand that the test of true prosperity shall…

Technology is an ancient concept. The Greeks differentiated epistêmê, the idea of knowledge, from technê, which meant craft or arts or applied knowledge. The Oxford English Dictionary defines technology as, the “branch of knowledge dealing with the mechanical arts and applied sciences; […] The application of such knowledge for practical purposes, esp. in industry, manufacturing,…

A private monopoly is indefensible and intolerable. We therefore favor the vigorous enforcement of the criminal as well as the civil law against trusts and trust officials, and demand the enactment of such additional legislation as may be necessary to make it impossible for a private monopoly to exist in the United States. We favor…

Starting in the 1960s, the FTC read its organic statute as conveying the power to create trade regulation rules. Many of the rules from the 1960s have been repealed, but when they were in effect, violators could be subject to significant fines. Some, like the Cigarette Rule which required health hazard labels on tobacco products,…

Americans have very different attitudes towards advertising. Some see it as promoting a richer lifestyle through providing information about the remarkable choices available to consumers. But advertising also causes anxiety across the political spectrum. There is continuing concern that modern innovations in advertising have somehow tipped the balance of power between the firm and the…

[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”] Legislation always has many parents, but George Rublee made special efforts to instill progressive politics into federal antitrust legislation. Rublee was a kind of political itinerant. Not formally affiliated with any…

Imagine living in a country where one’s main protection against dangerous products comes through labeling. From 1906 until passage of stronger regulations over foods, drugs and cosmetics, the government could do very little about dangerous products that were popularly marketed to the public. In 1933, Arthur Kallet and Frederick J. Schlink shocked the public with…

In 1911, Harry D. Nims, was hired by Printers’ Ink magazine to write a model law to address the problem of deceptive advertising.[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”][1] It read: Any person, firm, corporation or association who,…

In 1967, with regional offices in large population centers such as Boston, New York City, Houston, and Atlanta, why would the FTC create a new office in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (population 28,000)? The Nader Report in 1969 critiqued the FTC’s cronyism, particularly with political forces from Tennessee. The Yale and Harvard students on the Nader…