Consumer Protection Deputy Director To Leave FTC

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras today announced that C. Lee Peeler, deputy director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection for the past five years, will leave the FTC.

“Lee’s imprint can be found on three decades of important FTC consumer protection work,” FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras said. “Through his dedicated efforts, he has exemplified our very best, and we will miss his wise counsel and unlimited enthusiasm.” Peeler, who began his career with the FTC in 1973, will become president of the National Advertising Review Council and Executive Vice President for National Advertising and Self-Regulation of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

Peeler began his FTC career in the Consumer Protection Bureau’s Division of Special Statutes which became the Division of Credit Practices. In that position he helped shape the agency’s enforcement program for the Fair Credit Reporting Act and other Consumer Credit Protection Act statutes. In 1980, Peeler became a deputy assistant director in that division, and later was appointed executive assistant to the bureau director.

In 1985, Peeler became associate director of the Division of Advertising Practices. During his 15 years in that role, the division developed the “Green Guides” to prevent deceptive environmental claims for products, and worked on tobacco and alcohol advertising issues, and led efforts to harmonize FTC advertising enforcement policies with the Food and Drug Administration's rules implementing the Nutrition Labeling & Education Act and the Dietary Supplements Health & Education Act.

As bureau deputy director, Peeler helped develop the FTC’s data security and privacy programs, and helped lead the bureau’s work on media violence, childhood obesity, and health care fraud issues. He received the FTC Chairman’s Award in 1984 and, in 1993, the President of the United States awarded him the rank of Meritorious Executive in the Senior Executive Service.

Information about the Federal Trade Commission is available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish (bilingual counselors are available to take complaints), or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.