JUNE 2018
Northrop Grumman agreed
to supply solid rocket motors to competitors on a non-discriminatory basis as
part of a settlement resolving charges that Northrup’s $7.8 billion acquisition
of aerospace and defense contractor Orbital ATK likely would be
anticompetitive.
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FTC Chief Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell
dismissed antitrust charges in the FTC’s complaint challenging a
reverse-payment agreement between generic pharmaceutical company Impax
Laboratories and Endo Pharmaceuticals. The
Judge’s initial decision is subject to review by the full Commission. Both parties have filed a notice of appeal.
The FTC filed
an amicus brief in Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. v
Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc., arguing that patent infringement suits brought
under the Hatch-Waxman Act are not exempt from antitrust scrutiny.
FTC
staff submitted a comment to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC)
on a proposed rulemaking that would update the regulation of retail electricity
pricing transparency to residential and small commercial electricity customers.
The staff comment supports the PUC’s
efforts to preserve the ability of residential and small commercial electricity
customers to choose dynamic pricing plans.
The FTC has charged three
individuals and nine businesses with defrauding thousands of consumers of more
than $125 million with a fraudulent international online business education
program called MOBE (“My Online Business Education”). A federal court halted the scheme and froze
the defendants’ assets at the FTC’s request.
 FTC
Engages Public and Private Partners to Combat Indian Call Center Fraud
The FTC conducted its
third annual “Stepping up to Stop Indian Call Center Fraud” event in May. Many of these frauds involve impersonation of
government agencies, such as taxing authorities, or well-known technology
companies. The first day, co-sponsored
with the U.S.-India Business Council, brought together more than 100
representatives from U.S. and foreign enforcement and private sector
stakeholders, focused on technical defenses, law enforcement, consumer and
business education, and international coordination. On the second day, law enforcement
participants met to identify common targets and share investigative
techniques. The participants will continue
to coordinate efforts to battle these frauds.
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 Microsoft to Contribute Tech Support Fraud Complaints to FTC’s Consumer
Sentinel Network
Microsoft,
one of the private partners in the India call center fraud work, has agreed to
transfer the roughly 150,000 tech support complaints it receives every month to
the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network. This large data contribution will
help promote tech support enforcement cases by Sentinel law enforcement agency
members.
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 Econsumer.gov Releases Top Complaint Categories
for January to March
Did You Know? Econsumer.gov categorizes cross-border
e-commerce complaints by product service codes, which describe the goods or
services offered to the consumer. There
are more than 100 codes, which you can download here. Check out the top complaint categories for
January through March. Go to econsumer.gov to view the complete
list. Contact Hui Ling Goh, hgoh@ftc.gov for more information
on how to participate in econsumer.gov.
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The FTC has filed a complaint
in federal district court seeking to stop two
related operations and their principals who allegedly facilitated billions of
illegal robocalls to consumers nationwide, pitching everything from auto
warranties to home security systems and supposed debt relief services.
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FTC Chairman Joseph Simons announced
four additional appointments to the agency’s senior leadership team. The appointees are: Andrew Smith, Director of
the Bureau of Consumer Protection; D. Bruce Hoffman, Director of the Bureau of
Competition, having served as Acting Director since August 2017; Bruce H.
Kobayashi, Director of the Bureau of Economics; and Alden Abbott, General
Counsel, having served as Acting General Counsel since April. For their biographical details, click on the
headline above. Chairman Simons
previously announced that Tara Isa Koslov would serve as Interim Chief of Staff,
after nearly two years as Acting Director of the Office of Policy Planning, and
that Randolph W. Tritell would continue as Director of the Office of
International Affairs. For their biographical
details and for other appointments, click here.
In testimony before a Senate
subcommittee, FTC Chairman Joe Simons described the agency’s work to protect
consumers and promote competition through vigorous enforcement, education,
advocacy, and policy work, and by anticipating and responding to changes in the
marketplace. He noted that the FTC is
the only federal agency with jurisdiction to both protect consumers and
maintain competition in most sectors of the economy, and testified that in FY
2017 the Commission returned more than $543 million in redress to consumers and
deposited $94 million into the U.S. Treasury.
For details click on the headline above.
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The FTC has released its final agenda for a June 25 workshop in
Chicago that will examine scams involving cryptocurrencies. This event will be webcast on the FTC’s
website. The agency will post a webcast
link on the event page on the day of the event.
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