The Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces a variety of federal antitrust and consumer protection laws. The basic consumer protection statute enforced by the FTC is Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, which provides that unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce are unlawful. The FTC has the authority to investigate alleged unfair or deceptive practices and then to take action by issuing complaints, seeking injunctions, imposing fines, litigating, or ordering refunds. In many instances, parties charged with FTC violations enter into consent agreements or orders by which they agree to refrain from certain acts or practices.

In many instances, consumers file complaints with the FTC alleging unfair consumer ...

Get Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property: A Practical Guide to Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents & Trade Secrets now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.