Federal Trade Commission

(noun)

an independent agency of the United States government that seeks to promote consumer protection and the eliminate and prevent anti-competitive business practices, such as coercive monopoly

Related Terms

Examples of Federal Trade Commission in the following topics:

  • Illegal Price Advertising

    • Advertising is regulated by the authority of the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit "unfair and deceptive acts or practices in commerce. " What is illegal is the potential to deceive, which is interpreted to occur when consumers see the advertising to be stating to them, explicitly or implicitly, a claim that they may not realize is false and material.
    • In 1976, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that these claims were misleading, and that Listerine had "no efficacy" at either preventing or alleviating the symptoms of sore throats and colds.

  • Applicable Legislation

    • Federal legislation: Federal legislation exists to ensure such things as fair competition, fair pricing practices, and honesty in marketing communications.
    • Federal agencies like the US Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Product Safety concern themselves with all facets of business.

  • Predatory Pricing

    • The Federal Trade Commission has not successfully prosecuted any company for predatory pricing since.

  • Consumer Privacy Issues

    • The United States Federal Trade Commission proposed a "Do Not Track" mechanism to allow Internet users to opt-out of behavioral targeting in 2011.

  • Product Warranties

    • If the company still fails to follow through with its guarantee, the buyer may contact his or her state's attorney general, the seller's state attorney general, the Better Business Bureau, or the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

  • Trade vs. Consumer Promotions

    • Trade promotions are targeted toward retailers while consumer promotions are targeted toward consumers.
    • Trade promotions are targeted toward retailers while consumer promotions are targeted toward consumers .
    • Trade promotions are marketing activities executed between manufacturers and retailers.
    • Push money is an extra commission paid to encourage the stocking and selling of a product.
    • Differentiate between trade and consumer promotions relative to a product's marketing mix

  • The World Trade Organization (WTO)

    • The World Trade Organization (WTO) was officially formed on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, with the goal of supervising and liberalizing international trade between participating countries.
    • General Agreement on Trade in Services was established in 1995 to extend the multilateral trading system to service sector, in the same way as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provided such a system for merchandise trade.
    • Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade ensures that technical negotiations and standards, as well as testing and certification procedures, do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade.
    • The WTO has managed international trade negotiations among its members since 1995.
    • Review the purpose and status of the World Trade Organization (WTO)

  • Price Fixing

    • They might agree to sell at a common target price, set a common minimum price, buy the product from a supplier at a specified maximum price, adhere to a price book or list price, engage in cooperative price advertising, standardize financial credit terms offered to purchasers, use uniform trade-in allowances, limit discounts, discontinue a free service or fix the price of one component of an overall service, adhere uniformly to previously announced prices and terms of sale, establish uniform costs and markups, impose mandatory surcharges, purposefully reduce output or sales in order to charge higher prices, or purposefully share or pool markets, territories, or customers.
    • In the US, price fixing can be prosecuted as a criminal federal offense.
    • Virgin Atlantic has since been granted immunity by both the Office of Fair Trading and the United States Department of Justice who have been investigating the allegations since June 2006.
    • In April 2007 the European commission fined Heineken €219.3m, Grolsch €31.65m and Bavaria €22.85m for operating a price fixing cartel in Holland, totalling €273.7m (InBev, another brewer, was convicted for price fixing but escaped punishment) .

  • The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

    • The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada.
    • The bill removed taxes on products traded between the three countries.
    • NAFTA was created to eliminate barriers to trade and investment between the US, Canada and Mexico.
    • To alleviate concerns that NAFTA would have negative environmental impacts, in 1994 the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was given a mandate to conduct ongoing ex-post environmental assessment of NAFTA.
    • Discuss the goals of ways that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) serves its members

  • Consumer Products

    • The act also established the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) as an independent agency of the US Federal Government and defined its basic authority.
    • The CPSC has jurisdiction over more than 15,000 different products; however, the CPSA excludes from the CPSC's jurisdiction those products that expressly lie in another federal agency's jurisdiction, for example food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, tobacco products, firearms and ammunition, motor vehicles, pesticides, aircraft, and boats.
    • These products may fall under the purview of agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the US Department of Agriculture, the US Department of Transportation, the US Environment Protection Agency, the US Federal Aviation Administration, and the US Coast Guard.