Federal Trade Commission

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Pennsylvania Avenue at Sixth Street NW., Washington, DC 20580

Phone, 202-326-2222. Internet, http://www.ftc.gov/.

Chairman Robert Pitofsky

Executive Assistant James C. Hamill

Commissioners Sheila F. Anthony, Mary L. Azcuenaga, Orson Swindle, Mozelle W. Thompson

Executive Director Rosemarie A. Straight

Counsel to the Executive Director Judith Bailey

Chief Information Officer Keith Golden, Acting

Director, Bureau of Competition William J. Baer

Senior Deputy Director Richard Parker

Deputy Director Willard K. Tom

Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection Jodie Bernstein

Deputy Directors Lydia B. Parnes

Hugh Stevenson, Acting

Director, Bureau of Economics Jonathan B. Baker

General Counsel Debra A. Valentine

Deputy General Counsel (vacancy)

Director, Office of Congressional Relations Lorraine C. Miller

Director, Office of Public Affairs Victoria A. Streitfeld

Director, Office of Policy Planning Susan S. DeSanti

Secretary of the Commission Donald S. Clark

Chief Administrative Law Judge Lewis F. Parker

Inspector General Frederick J. Zirkel

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The objective of the Federal Trade Commission is to maintain competitive enterprise as the keystone of the American economic system, and to prevent the free enterprise system from being fettered by monopoly or restraints on trade or corrupted by unfair or deceptive trade practices. The Commission is charged with keeping competition both free and fair.

The purpose of the Federal Trade Commission is expressed in the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41-58) and the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C.

12), both passed in 1914 and both successively amended in the years since. The Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits the use in or affecting commerce of ``unfair methods of competition'' and ``unfair or deceptive acts or practices.'' The Clayton Act outlaws specific practices recognized as instruments of monopoly. As an independent administrative agency,

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acting quasi-judicially and quasi-legislatively, the Commission was established to deal with trade practices on a continuing and corrective basis. It has no authority to punish; its function is to prevent, through cease-and-desist orders and other means, those practices condemned by Federal trade regulation laws. However, court-ordered civil penalties up to $11,000 may be obtained for each violation of a Commission order or trade regulation rule.

Congress has delegated a variety of duties to the Commission under such statutes as the Wheeler-Lea Act, the Clayton Act, the Consumer Credit Protection Act, the Robinson-Patman Act, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty-Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act, the Federal Trade Commission Improvements Act of 1980, the Smokeless Tobacco Health Education Act of 1986, the Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution Act, the Federal Trade Commission Improvements Act of 1994, the International Antitrust Enforcement Assistance Act of 1994, the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act Amendments of 1994.

The Commission is composed of five members. Each member is appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of 7 years. Not more than three of the Commissioners may be members of the same political party. One Commissioner is designated by the President as Chairman of the Commission and is responsible for its administrative management.

Activities

The Commission's principal functions are to:

--promote competition in or affecting commerce through the prevention of general trade restraints such as price-fixing agreements, boycotts, illegal combinations of competitors, and other unfair methods of competition;

--safeguard the public by preventing the dissemination of false or deceptive advertisements of consumer products and services, as well as other unfair or deceptive practices;

--prevent pricing discrimination; exclusive-dealing and tying arrangements; corporate mergers, acquisitions, or joint ventures, when such practices or arrangements may substantially lessen competition or tend to...

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