Menu
Consumer Protection
We’re continuing the work we’ve been doing since 2013: monitoring how the FTC operates, warning about the potential for abuse inherent in the FTC’s uniquely broad jurisdiction and extraordinarily elastic legal standards, and proposing reforms that could curb the potential for abuse without hamstringing the agency from bringing sound cases to protect consumers.
Select Publication Type
Latest Articles
Press Release
EU-US Privacy Shield Extended, Keeping the Internet Global and Open—for Now
WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, the European Commission finished its third annual review of the EU-US Privacy Shield framework, extending for another year the agreement that allows U.S. companies to handle European personal data — and thus serve European users. But a looming decision from the European Court of Justice could bring trans-Atlantic data flows to a halt overnight, despite the extension. TechFreedom’s Director of civil liberties Ashkhen Kazaryan said: “Renewal of the EU-US Privacy ...
Ashkhen Kazaryan
October 23, 2019
Article
The Facebook Scandal: How Congress, FTC Should Respond
WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, as the House and Senate hold hearings with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, TechFreedom issued a letter to Members of Congress sharing (1) our legal analysis of Facebook’s handling of user data and (2) policy guidance on how the Federal Trade Commission and Congress should respond to Facebook’s handling of Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of user data. “Facebook clearly dropped the ball here, and some governmental response is justified, but Congress must ...
Berin Szóka
April 10, 2018
Article
On Amazon’s UI Design, FTC Knows Best
Court Decision Gives FTC Sweeping Discretion to Second-Guess Web Design WASHINGTON D.C. — Yesterday, a federal district court granted the FTC’s motion for summary judgment against Amazon in a lawsuit over the design of apps on the Kindle Fire. The FTC alleged that Amazon had committed an unfair trade practice by enabling children to make in-app purchases not authorized by their parents. This echoes the FTC’s settlement with Apple of similar charges in 2014 over ...
April 27, 2016
Article
TechFreedom to FTC: If You Can’t Prove Likely Injury, You Can’t Penalize Security Practices
WASHINGTON, DC — On Friday, TechFreedom urged the Federal Trade Commissioners (FTC) not to reverse the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by FTC staff against LabMD, a small cancer testing lab that went out of business under the weight of the lawsuit, but has continued to challenge the FTC’s approach to data security with pro bono representation. In an Amicus Curiae brief, TechFreedom argues that the FTC must not ignore the most important limit that Congress has placed on the FTC’s ...
February 9, 2016
Article
FTC’s Big Data Report Offers Little Analysis, Zero Economics
WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, the FTC reiterated its age-old formula: there are benefits, there are risks, and here are some recommendations on what we regard as best practices. The report summarizes the workshop the agency held in October 2014, “Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?” Commissioner Ohlhausen issued a separate statement, saying the report gave “undue credence to hypothetical harms” and failed to “consider the powerful forces of economics and ...
January 6, 2016
Article
FTC’s Competition Policy Statement is Long Overdue
WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, the Federal Trade Commission released a policy statement defining the FTC’s Unfair Methods of Competition (UMC) authority, paralleling the policy statements issued by the Commission regarding its consumer protection authority over unfair (1980) and deceptive (1983) acts and practices (UDAP). The 1-page document reportedly promises that the FTC will only use its UMC authority regarding conduct not covered by the antitrust laws This would ...
August 13, 2015
White Paper
Nomi: The Dark Side of the Latest FTC Privacy Case
The First Amendment allows antitrust action against media companies for their business practices, but not for their editorial judgments. Section 230 mirrors this distinction by protecting providers of interactive computer services from being “treated as the publisher” of content provided by others, including decisions to withdraw or refuse to publish that content (230(c)(1)), and by further protecting decisions made “in good faith” to take down content, regardless of who created it (230(c)(2)(A)). ...
Berin Szóka and Ben Sperry
April 29, 2015
Article
Obama Escalates Crackdown on the Open Internet
Today, the Obama Administration proposed new legislation to dictate how American companies use data to provide services. “Yesterday, many in Silicon Valley cheered the FCC’s adoption of President Obama’s plan to regulate net neutrality as preserving today’s Internet,’ said Berin Szoka, President of TechFreedom, “but today, the White House proposed new rules on how Internet companies use consumer data that would fundamentally change the way Internet businesses ...