Federal Trade Commission

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

600 Pennsylvania Avenue 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, Orson Swindle, Mozelle W. Thompson,

(vacancy)

Executive Director Rosemarie A. Straight

Deputy Executive Director Judith Bailey

Chief Information Officer Rick Turner

Chief Financial Officer Henry Hoffman

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

Teresa Moran Schwartz

Director, Bureau of Economics Jeremy I. Bulow

General Counsel Debra A. Valentine

Deputy General Counsel John D. Graubert

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 James P. Timony

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.

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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, 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 Robinson-Patman Act (1936), the Wheeler-Lea Act

(1938), the Consumer Credt Protection Act (1968-78), the Magnuson-Moss Warranty-FTC Improvement Act (1975), the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (1976), the FTC Improvements Act of 1980, the Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution Act (1992), the FTC Improvements Act of 1994, the International Antitrust Enforcement Assistance Act (1994), the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act (1994), the FTC Act Amendments of 1994, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (1998).

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...