Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: Officials: FTC, FCC MOU Formalizes Long History of Cooperation, (Nov 18, 2015)

By John Curran,TRDaily

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and FTC officials said yesterday that the memorandum of understanding they unveiled earlier this week that spells out the agencies' “ongoing cooperation on consumer protection” is meant to formalize a long history of cooperating between the two agencies particularly on data security and privacy issues.

The memorandum of understanding or MOU states, among other things, that the agencies will “continue to work together to protect consumers from acts and practices that are deceptive, unfair, unjust, and/or unreasonable,” will coordinate on initiatives “where one agency's action will have a significant effect on the other agency's authority or programs, ”will consult on "investigations or actions that implicate the jurisdiction of the other agency," and will hold regular coordination meetings to “review current marketplace practices and each agency's work on matters of common interest that impact consumers” and to "exchange their respective learning about the evolution of communications markets."

Speaking at a Media Institute luncheon, Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, and Jessica Rich, director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the MOU serves as a more formal notice of the agencies’ cooperation, but that the underlying cooperation between the two is nothing new. They also declined to trumpet the issuance of the MOU as a harbinger of some greater combined effort to come.

“It’s a formalization of coordination that we have been doing for quite a while,” said Ms. Rich. “We get a lot of questions . . . it seemed to be a timely moment” to formalize the cooperation, she said, adding that the FTC has cooperative arrangements with many federal government agencies including the Department of Justice.

Mr. LeBlanc cited a separate comment by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler that work on the MOU began about 18 months ago, and said the MOU represented an attempt to achieve “harmonization across the spectrum” on data privacy and security enforcement, including with state-level authorities.

“There is no Batman or Superman here – it’s the Justice League,” he said of the cooperation between the FCC and FTC, drawing laughs from the crowd at the event.

Mr. LeBlanc added that the FCC also cooperates on a range of issues with other agencies, including Department of Justice and various state agencies.

Mr. LeBlanc was asked for an update on when the FCC planned to take action on broadband privacy, and replied that he thought the latest update was that “in the next several months the Chairman intends to take the issue up with the Commission.” Ms. Rich said the FTC is “consulting” with the FCC on that issue.

Also during their remarks at the event, Mr. LeBlanc and Ms. Rich explained their agencies’ recent court and administrative actions on data privacy and security including matters involving, in the case of the FTC, Wyndham Hotels, and in the case of the FCC, AT&T, Inc., Cox Communications, and TerraCom, Inc.

Ms. Rich said the FTC actions have shown that Section 5 of the FTC Act which prohibits unfair practices “can adapt as businesses and technology changes.”

Mr. LeBlanc said the FCC’s actions show the bureau “is not just engaged in a game of gotcha . . . These cases are red letter.”

Both officials also maintained that their agencies were providing adequate guidance to industry about their enforcement policies regarding data security and privacy.

News: ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews