Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, WORTH NOTING—Other Antitrust and Trade Regulation developments, (Apr 5, 2016)

A periodic roundup of other items of interest to the Antitrust and Trade Regulation community:

Consumer Protection, e-commerce. The FTC has welcomed the issuance of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) revised guidelines, “Consumer Protection in E-commerce.” The OECD revised its original 1999 Recommendation to address the “higher complexity of the online environment and related risks for consumers,” to achieve effective consumer protection, and to stimulate innovation and competition in the market.

Consumer Protection, health apps. A new web-based tool that tells developers of health-related mobile apps what federal laws and regulations might apply to their apps has been created by the FTC and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Office for Civil Rights, and the Food and Drug Administration. The tool asks developers a number of questions about the app’s function, the data it collects, and the services it provides to users. Based on the developer’s responses, the tool points the developer to detailed information about particular federal laws that might apply, including the FTC Act, the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act. The FTC simultaneously released its own guidance: Mobile Health App Developers: FTC Best Practices.

Privacy, FTC conference. The FTC is seeking presentations for its second PrivacyCon—a collaboration among leading whitehat researchers, academics, industry representatives, consumer advocates, and the government to address the privacy and security implications of emerging technologies. In its call for presentations, the Commission is seeking research presentations on the harms caused by privacy violations; attack vectors and trends by which attackers may compromise privacy; how often consumers are using ad blocker tools; and the costs of malware to consumers and businesses. The FTC announced that it would hold a second PrivacyCon due to the success of its first PrivacyCon event, which involved more than 300 participants in person, more than 1,500 online participants, and 19 presentations from researchers around the world. The second PrivacyCon event will be held on January 12, 2017. Presentation submissions must be made by October 3, 2016.

News: ConsumerProtection Privacy FederalTradeCommissionNews