Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, AGENCY NEWS: FTC issues summary of performance, financial information report for Fiscal Year 2015, (Feb 17, 2016)

By Linda O’Brien, J.D., LL.M.

The FTC has issued its Summary of Performance and Financial Information Report, which highlights the agency’s Annual Performance Report (APR) and Agency Financial Report (AFR) for Fiscal Year 2015. Intended for consumers, businesses, and other stakeholders, the Summary provides an understanding of the FTC’s mission, programs, performance, and financial results for the year.

Performance Highlights

Consumer protection. In the consumer protection arena, the FTC emphasized developments that reflect key challenges consumers face: the explosive growth of mobile platforms and new technologies; privacy and data security risks; fraud targeting specific communities; and financial marketplace fraud.

According to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, the Commission continues to focus on consumer protection issues that arise from the use of new technologies. In one such case, TracFone, the largest prepaid mobile provider, agreed to refund $40 million to consumers to settle FTC charges that it misled consumers with promises of “unlimited” data service, even though it slowed or cut off a customer’s mobile data after they used more than a fixed amount.

The FTC has employed a multi-pronged approach to protect the privacy of consumers’ personal information. The agency has launched IdentityTheft.gov, a resource that allows victims to report and recover from identity theft. The FTC also has expanded its efforts to help businesses protect consumers’ information through a new initiative called “Start with Security.”

To stop fraudulent practices that target specific communities—such as Spanish-speaking consumers, seniors, and military service members—the FTC has taken enforcement action and partnered with law enforcement to halt telemarketers, sellers of weight loss products, and sham charities.

Competition. The FTC actively enforces the antitrust laws in a range of industries of critical importance to American consumers, including health care, technology, energy, consumer goods and services, and manufacturing. The agency has pursued new competition law enforcement actions, conducted workshops, published reports, and pursued advocacy opportunities to promote competition and educate stakeholders about its benefits, the report noted.

Financial management. The FTC’s FY 2015 independent financial audit resulted in the 19th consecutive unmodified opinion, the highest audit opinion available. The independent auditors did not identify any material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, or instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. Management’s assessment of risks and review of controls found no material weaknesses and disclosed that the financial and performance data presented in the report is reliable and complete, the Charwoman’s message reported.

Financial Highlights

Three strategic goals were identified as addressing the challenges to the FTC’s mission of preventing anticompetitive business practices, enhancing informed consumer choice, and accomplishing its goals without an undue burden to legitimate business activity: (1) protecting consumers; (2) maintain competition; and (3) advance organization performance.

Protect consumers. During FY 2015, the agency saved consumers over seven times the amount of resources devoted to the consumer protection program. The FTC returned $49.8 million to consumers and forwarded $26.4 million to the U.S. Treasury. The number of partners using consumer and business education materials by employing outreach programs and leveraging cost effective outlets increased. The FTC cooperated in 58 instances on consumer protection and privacy matters to obtain or share evidence or engaged in other enforcement cooperation for investigations, cases, and enforcement-related projects.

Maintain competition. The FTC achieved successful outcomes in 29 of the 52 substantial merger and nonmerger investigations concluded in FY 2015. The agency saved consumers more than 51 times the amount of resources devoted to the merger program and more than 48 times the amount of resources devoted to the nonmerger program. The FTC had 64 substantive contacts in 35 enforcement matters with counterpart agencies around the world.

Advance organizational performance. The FTC continued to process noncomplex Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests in less than six days. The government-wide results for the Talent Management Index were 57 percent, while the FTC received results of 72 percent.

Additionally, the FTC collected $707 million for redress disgorgement, returned more than $49 million in redress funds to consumers and over $155 million to the U.S. Treasury, and saved consumers over $3.4 billion through its merger and nonmerger actions and over $717 million through its consumer protection law enforcement actions. The number of partners using consumer and business education materials has increased to over 16,000 in FY 2015. The FTC continues to rank highly in various categories of OPM’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

News: Antitrust ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews