Third Federal Trade Commission Conference on Marketing and Public Policy

The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics will host the Third Federal Trade Commission Conference on Marketing and Public Policy on March 19-20, 2026 in Washington, D.C. This event will bring together scholars and policymakers interested in issues at the intersection of marketing, information economics, and public policy.

As America’s primary consumer protection law enforcement agency, the FTC has benefited from the insights of the economics and marketing literature in its long history of case and policy work. Following the success of the first and second marketing and public policy conferences hosted by the FTC in 2016 and 2024, this conference aims to deepen the intellectual dialogue between FTC policymakers and scholars in quantitative marketing, information economics, and consumer behavior research. It will serve as a vehicle for scholars to learn about the FTC’s work in competition and consumer protection, promote high impact research in consumer protection and related public policies, and introduce FTC policymakers to cutting-edge research.

The conference will feature research paper sessions as well as a panel discussion including both policymakers and academic experts.

Deadline for paper submission: November 30, 2025

Call for Papers

We welcome submission in the following areas:

1. How do consumers use and interact with digital devices and platforms? To what extent do they encounter “deceptive patterns” online, and how do such patterns affect their behavior? Do firms take consumer biases into account when designing digital interfaces, and if so, how?
2. How does changing price transparency, including through changes in hidden or shrouded fees, affect consumer access, search, choice, and other behavior in traditional and online marketplaces?
3. How do consumers deal with and value privacy, data access and data security? How do firms and other market players address consumer concerns about privacy and data practices? To what extent, and how, do firms compete over privacy and data security or advertise their data practices to consumers?  How do consumers react to such marketing?
4. How do consumers express their voice online through consumer reviews, complaints, or social media posts? How do consumers process information from these sources, as well as other non-price attributes such as product descriptions, different varieties of a product, or the details of subscription programs?
5. How should one define and measure the role of personalized pricing, recommendation algorithms, generative artificial intelligence, and other new technologies in consumer choice and decision making and consumer welfare? How do consumers interact with artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence, including AI chatbots, search widgets, and virtual assistants?
6. What pricing, marketing, advertising, and data strategies do firms use in digital marketplace and social media? How do they differ from those in traditional markets? How do they evolve over time? These issues include, but are not limited to, online influencers, marketer disclosure of commercial sponsorship, buy now pay later, rent to own, automatic subscription, digital targeting and tracking, and other new marketing techniques.
7. How should one measure consumer injury from consumer protection violations, or consumer benefits from consumer protection enforcement?
8. What are consumer expectations about intellectual property rights and ownership over user-generated content on digital platforms and their potential use for developing generative artificial intelligence?  How do firms design their terms of service and what do consumers understand about them? How should one measure harm and countervailing benefits from the use of user-generated content for developing AI models?

In addition to these specific topics, we would welcome research that:

9. Evaluates past, current, and future government regulations on consumer protection and related issues, including how such regulations might adversely affect competition;
10. Develops new methodologies to understand consumer and firm behavior, including theoretical, empirical and experimental approaches; or
11. Discovers new behavioral biases that play an important role in consumer behavior, firm strategy, and government regulation and enforcement.

Interested participants should submit an abstract or completed paper by November 30, 2025 to marketingconf@ftc.gov. Preference will be given to completed papers. You should receive an email confirmation receipt of your submission. If you do not, it means that we have not received it. Accepted participants should expect to provide a financial disclosure statement meeting the AEA’s guidelines to be included in their conference bio.

Scientific Committee

• K. Sudhir, Professor of Marketing, Yale School of Management
• Ginger Jin, Professor of Economics, University of Maryland, Department of Economics
• Yeşim Orhun, Professor of Marketing, University of Michigan Ross School of Business
• Devesh Raval, Deputy Director, Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Economics
• Nellie Lew, Assistant Director, Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Economics

Staff Contact: Katherine Chang (marketingconf@ftc.gov)

Local Steering Committee

• Andrew Ching, Professor of Marketing and Economics, Johns Hopkins University, Carey Business School
• James Cooper, Professor of Law, George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School
• John Mayo, Professor and Elsa Carlson McDonough Chair in Business Administration, Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business.

Sponsors

• Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Economics
• Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University
• The Law & Economics Center's Program on Economics and Privacy at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
• Center for Business and Public Policy, Georgetown University

Registration

This 1.5-day conference will be held on March 19-20, 2026 at the Constitution Center Plaza Level Conference Center, 400 7th Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024. After the conference on March 19, there will be an evening reception with food and drinks at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center (555 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C.).

Pre-registration for this conference is necessary. To pre-register, please fill out the registration form with your name, email, and affiliation. Attendees must register for the evening conference reception by March 1, 2026. If space permits, we may allow a very limited number of onsite registrations beginning at 8:15 am on March 19.

We will use your email address to contact you with information about the conference and will share your name and email address with the conference co-sponsors. The FTC Act and other laws we administer permit the collection of your pre-registration contact information and the comments you file to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. For additional information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see the Commission’s system for mailing lists. For more details, please see the FTC Privacy Policy.

Attending the Conference

The conference is free and open to the public. Please arrive early with enough time to go through security. The security processing will include a metal detector and X-ray screening of all hand carried items. You must have a valid government issued photo ID (government badge, license, passport, etc.). The conference will follow the AEA’s code of professional conduct. All presenters must follow AEA disclosure guidelines.