Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Companies across almost every industry could easily find themselves in the Federal Trade Commission’s crosshairs — whether for data privacy, AI practices, advertising claims, or traditional competition and consumer protection matters. And as the agency continues to expand its enforcement reach into emerging technology and algorithmic decision-making, that list is only growing. Our Federal Trade Commission practice offers clients a team of attorneys with deep experience across consumer protection and competition matters. In addition to defending investigations and enforcement actions, we provide regulatory counseling and compliance support, including preparing public comments on FTC rulemakings and policy initiatives. We understand the intricacies of the FTC and its broad enforcement authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act, including unfair or deceptive acts or practices (UDAP) and unfair methods of competition.

Comprehensive Support Across the FTC Landscape

Drawing on our roles as enforcement defense counsel, independent assessors, regulatory advisors, and policy advocates, we provide end‑to‑end support for companies facing or seeking to avoid FTC scrutiny. Across AI, privacy, data security, advertising, telemarketing, financial practices, and competition, we help clients identify exposure to increasingly aggressive FTC enforcement, build practical and defensible compliance programs, navigate investigations, CIDs, consent orders, and assessment obligations, and engage effectively with the agency on rulemakings and policy initiatives. Our experience and proactive approach position clients to manage risk and operate confidently.

Our FTC Practice: Key Focus Areas

• Consumer Protection: Privacy, Data Security, AI, and UDAP
  We counsel and defend clients in privacy, data security, UDAP, and emerging technology matters, including AI. Our team has served as FTC‑approved independent assessors in multiple high‑profile consent orders involving children’s privacy (COPPA), health information (including the Health Breach Notification Rule), connected devices and video surveillance, and interactive television. Leveraging recognized privacy and security frameworks (such as ISO standards), we design, evaluate, and test comprehensive programs and lead clients through initial and biannual assessments. We also handle FTC, Congressional, and State Attorneys General investigations arising from data incidents, ransomware attacks, and secure development issues, and help clients operationalize controls, launch compliant products and features, and prepare internal teams for regulatory scrutiny.
• Advertising, Marketing, Deceptive and Unfair Practices
  We handle FTC enforcement and counseling on unfair and deceptive practices, including advertising and marketing claims, pricing and fee practices, consumer disclosures, and telemarketing. Our experience spans investigations and litigation under Section 5 of the FTC Act, ROSCA, the TCPA, the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), and related authorities, including Do Not Call enforcement. We advise on claim substantiation, appropriate disclosures, calling and consent practices, recordkeeping, and broader promotional strategies across traditional, digital, and telemarketing channels, and have secured outcomes such as no‑action resolutions and withdrawal of enforcement actions.
• Financial Practices and Consumer Fraud
  We represent lenders, banks, communications companies, and other financial services providers in high‑stakes FTC actions and investigations involving alleged abusive or deceptive financial practices, consumer fraud, and misuse of consumer data. Our work includes defending large‑scale enforcement actions seeking substantial monetary relief, responding to CIDs focused on FinTech relationships and consumer reporting, and managing third‑party subpoenas in complex matters involving alleged fabricated debt and other schemes. We also help clients design and enhance compliance programs to address UDAP risks in credit, servicing, collections, and other consumer‑facing financial products and services.
• Competition and Antitrust Matters
  Our FTC practice also encompasses competition matters, including investigations and counseling related to alleged market allocation, nonsolicitation agreements, competitor collaborations, and merger‑related antitrust risk. We have negotiated favorable resolutions in multi‑year FTC investigations involving sophisticated matching algorithms, workflows, and data analytics, and we regularly advise on structuring transactions, joint ventures, and information‑sharing arrangements to minimize antitrust and unfair‑competition exposure.