Business Blog

Never let it be said that the FTC doesn’t have your back — or sleeve, cuff, waistband, or wherever else you find the label that discloses the kind of fabric a product is made of.  If your business touches on textiles, you’re familiar with the requirements of the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act and the FTC’s accompanying Textile Rules.  Are you in the loop o

We've been patient.  It's been years since "Star Wars" came out and we still don't have a gold-plated droid to do our bidding.  But companies have introduced a slew of "smart" products that perform a lot of the same functions.

Lending a helping hand is great when you’re talking about a barn raising, a rent party, or assisting a little old lady across the street.  But when the activity in question is, well, questionable — like selling businesses technology that can be used to place illegal robocalls — companies need to make sure they’re not assisting and facilitating violations of the law.  That’s one message your clients should take from the FTC’s settlement with Skyy Consulting, which also does business under the name CallFire.

Shakespeare coined the line in The Merchant of Venice.  Jimmy Page and Robert Plant referred to it in Stairway to Heaven.  And now it's one of the topics up for discussion at an FTC Roundtable on Wednesday, June 19, 2013.  Any guesses?

"All that glitters is not gold."

When it comes to older consumers, the usual anti-identity theft advice still applies.  But as we get older, we’re more likely to receive government benefits, visit the doctor regularly, or ponder a move to Del Boca Vista Phase 3 — lifestyle changes that may present different kinds of ID theft concerns.  Sure, it's an important topic for older consumers and their families.  But if you have clients in the financial services, healthcare, or residential care sector, an upcoming FTC workshop will help them focus on what this means for businesses, too.

When the topic turns to debt collection, some people assume the only thing that changes hands is money.  But there’s another important consideration:  the life cycle of consumer information as it flows through the debt collection process.  That's the subject of Life of a Debt: Data Integrity in Debt Collection, a June 6, 2013, roundtable co-hosted by the FTC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

A lot has been happening on the COPPA front.  A few years ago, the FTC announced it was taking a fresh look at the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule to make sure it was keeping up with the times.  Hundreds attended a national workshop to offer their candid assessment of what could be done to improve the Rule.  Then came more than 400 written comments from consumer groups, industry, educators, and parents.  You suggested sensible steps to keep Moms and Dads in the driver's seat about the information companies collect from their kids online while also streamlining compliance for busin

We can’t figure out why Hollywood hasn’t returned our call, but here's a great idea for an action movie.  FTC attorneys go to court to stop a company from illegally billing people for text message-based subscription services they never asked for and didn’t authorize.  We even have a can’t-miss title:  Crambo.

It’s time for the FTC to recap the past year for The Boss. (We mean taxpayers, not Bruce Springsteen.) The FTC’s Annual Highlights is in an online format this time — be sure to check out the message from FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez — but it’s still packed with stats 'n' charts to show what we’ve been doing to protect America’s consumers.