Between announcing a joint public inquiry with the DOJ seeking information on serial acquisitions and roll-up strategies and Chair Lina Khan's remarks at the 2024 American Economic Liberties Project Anti-Monopoly Summit, the FTC was active with regard to antitrust issues this week. The FTC provided a glimpse into the markets, in which it is currently interested in, for potential anticompetitive practices, and refunded consumers millions for false country of origin claims. These stories and more after the jump.
Monday, May 13, 2024
Bureau of Consumer Protection: Consumer Refunds; Advertising and Marketing
- The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") announced that it is sending more than $180,000 in refunds to 889 consumers who were harmed by false "Made in USA" claims by Cycra (a motocross and ATV parts maker). This refund stems from the FTC's complaint in June 2023, which alleged that from 2019 through May 2022, Cycra deceptively claimed that its products were made in Lexington, North Carolina, on its website, and falsely labeled its products as "Made in USA," despite the fact that its parts were imported from Asia and Europe.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Bureau of Competition: Merger; Unfair Methods of Competition; Deceptive/Misleading Conduct
- The FTC recently issued its Fiscal Year ("FY") 2023 Annual Report. According to the report, in 2023, the FTC focused on (1) companies that hiked their prices with deceptive junk fees, (2) subscription traps, (3) AI enforcement, and (4) telemarketing sweeps. The FTC also focused on attempting to block, what it deemed to be, anticompetitive mergers, preventing companies from using unfair tactics to gain business, and updating its merger policies.
- FTC Commission Chair Lina M. Khan testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee, addressing the FTC's FY Budget for 2025. The FTC requested $535 million to fund the FY 2024 and anticipated FY 2025 pay increases and critical IT investments to continue its enforcement work within privacy and data security. In her opening statement, Commission Chair Khan highlighted that the FTC is currently focused on improper patents listed by pharmaceutical companies, grocery store mergers, and anticompetitive practices amongst oil companies.
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Bureau of Competition: Mergers, Dual Enforcement/DOJ
- The FTC and United States Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division announced that they jointly launched a public inquiry to identify serial acquisitions and roll-up strategies throughout the economy that led to consolidation that the agencies claim have harmed competition. The Request for Information (RFI) issued by the agencies claims that businesses are not required to report these types of deals to the federal antitrust agencies, allowing firms to amass significant control over key products, services, or labor markets without government scrutiny and to the detriment of competition and consumers. The RFI seeks information from a wide range of stakeholders in all sectors and industries in the U.S. economy. Comments submitted in response to this RFI will inform the agencies' enforcement priorities and future actions. The public will have 60 days to submit comments at Regulations.gov, no later than July 22, 2024. Once submitted, comments will be posted to Regulations.gov. This RFI complements a parallel government inquiry looking to understand how certain health care market transactions by private equity firms and other corporations may impact health care for patients and taxpayers.
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Bureau of Competition: Chair Khan Remarks
- FTC Chair Lina Khan issued remarks at the 2024 American Economic Liberties Project Anti-Monopoly Summit. Chair Khan spoke to a wide range of employees and business individuals such as farmers, pharmacists, law enforcers, and labor organizers. In her speech, she emphasized the importance of continuing to enforce antitrust laws and summarized recent key cases brought by the FTC. She also applauded the business leaders who are "speaking up against monopoly power, despite the real threat of retaliation." Her full remarks as prepared can be found here.
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Bureau of Consumer Protection: Mergers
- The FTC's Deputy Director of the Bureau of Competition, Kyle Mach, released a statement "welcom[ing] the news" that Altus Group Limited announced that it terminated its efforts to acquire Situs Group LLC's commercial real estate valuation and advisory services business, REVS. Deputy Director Mach stated that valuation management services "touch on nearly all commercial real estate in the United States by ensuring pension and other fund investors have near-to real-time insight into the value of their commercial real estate assets." According to the FTC, the acquisition threatened to limit competition among independent valuation management services providers, which are critical to ensure the integrity of information people rely on to make investment decisions.
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