FTC commissioners should issue a policy statement on Section...
FTC commissioners should issue a policy statement on Section 5 of the FTC Act authority to act against unfair methods of competition only if the five commissioners are unanimous, Commissioner Julie Brill said during a Tuesday session at the Technology…
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Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum. Benefits from a policy statement “will really only come if you get something that’s close to a unanimous statement,” she said. “We might quibble on the outskirts,” but any statement should be one “where we largely agree.” If the agency does put out a policy statement on Section 5 authority, she said, “I also think it’s important that it be a five-commissioner statement, not a four-commissioner statement.” Brill also questions “the fundamental premises of the need for a statement,” as outlined in calls for a statement from Commissioners Joshua Wright and Maureen Ohlhausen. “Never once has anyone from the business community … said to me that Section 5 has inhibited their activity,” she said. The agency’s authority over unfair methods of competition was “designed to be flexible, remedial,” she said.