Federal trade commission

Federal trade commission

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Federal trade commission

FTC is an acronym for the federal trade commission. It is an independent agency of the United States federal government and it is mainly involved in the enforcement and promotion of anti-trust laws and the protection of consumer rights against how most of the brands and companies always have a wish to go against the rules of the federal government concerning the protection of the customers. The major forms of activities that are against the law, which this agency is mainly involved in preventing, include; anti-competitive, unfair businesses and deception through law enforcement, education, and advocacy. These practices are also carried out by this agency of the federal government without the burdening of the business activities carried out within the country. It was formed in 1914. Therefore in line with this, this paper discusses the role and importance of the federal trade commission and how it plays a very important role in the operation of businesses as well as how this agency makes the business environment good for the customers especially (Clarkson, & Muris, 2008).

President Woodrow Wilson established the federal trade commission in the year 1914 with the dreams and hopes of making sure that the business environment was completely fair and considerate for all the people who were operating. These included the protection against monopolies and the protection against the antitrust issues which were coming up at those times concerning the business world. Apart from these two, the federal trade commission was also given the responsibility of making sure those monopolistic mergers, bid-rigging, deceptive and fraudulent advertising, and price-fixing among others. Earlier on before the establishment of this federal trade commission, the Clayton Antitrust Act and Sherman Antitrust Act prohibited some practices within the business system and this was the development from which the federal government under President Woodrow Wilson developed and made better by making sure that the laws and the policies which were in place at that particular time were developed and made better into the new laws which came up as the formation of this agency.

Another reason why these discussions occur and the failure to make the environment better, was the failure of the enactments which had been put into place earlier before this. This majorly refers to the two enactments which were never followed and which meant a lot for the United States population but at the same time not followed. Therefore one of the biggest motivations is the fact that even though the individuals and the people of that particular period never followed the rules which were in place and therefore these new rules were put into place as a response to that and therefore there was a great need for the new laws to be followed if the society and the governance of the administration of President Woodrow Wilson were to be effective and important, unlike the other leaderships before him (Weingast, & Moran, 1982).

In the first instance, the federal trade commission was charged with the work of making sure that the monopolies never existed and that there were no mergers to form a monopoly that could be able to control the different factors and especially the prices and the costs of items. Monopolies are anti-competitiveness and therefore dictate consumer prices, control quality, and the distribution of a certain specific type of item which the monopoly controls and maintains the biggest possible option and ability to produce that particular product. With the economy getting transformed and changing in how it operated this agency of the federal government has also been able to change and accommodate the different aspects of the economy and the business world. Some of the major changes which have had to take place within this agency include the addition of the functions of the FTC which include the following;

Enforcement of laws through which the federal trade commission can go on with court cases whereby there is a player within the economy who tries to go against the established methods of operation and therefore through the use of the court system it becomes easy and possible for the federal trade commission to make sure that everything is followed strictly and in the right manner as stated in the united states constitution and into its business different sections about fairness and the establishment of the equal playing ground. apart from this, the FTC was also involved in investigative work whereby due to the complaints filed to the FTC by different agencies, individuals, and companies this agency got into investigating the claims presented to them about a particular group or a company. This is a very important aspect of the federal trade commission as this determines if it will be able to take action against the different companies realized to violate the rules and the laws present as well as determine if the companies are guilt or are not guilt about several issues which are presented onto the FTC. This determination is very important because not only is the investigative nature of the FTC reveal which companies are not active and working properly but it also determines if what is happening among different companies is exemplary work or is a warning sign for different customers (Clarkson, & Muris, 2008)..

Even though when it began there were no internet issues at that particular time in recent times there has been a great rise in the issues of internet connectivity and how this internet has had a great influence on the people in the business world. Therefore this has led the federal trade commission into realizing that the age was a digital age and therefore the evaluation and source of proper information was supposed to be the internet. This made the federal trade commission engage in a very great manner on the internet. Through this kind of engagement therefore it is easy to notice and identify what different companies and activities are taking place within different spheres of the business world and therefore it is from the information which is generally passed on through the internet platforms that it can form a special part of investigative methods which can cover these areas discussed online. Apart from the above functions, the FTC is also involved in fact-finding, oversight, and monitoring.

The main purpose of the federal trade commission is to make sure that the consumers of all the products in the united states of America are fully protected from cunning companies and cartels whose main idea and will is to make sure that they just get an income without looking closely and caring for the needs of their customers whom they serve. Therefore it is important for this particular purpose. Furthermore, it not only protects the consumers but also protects the other companies in operation by rooting out those companies with practices that are not fully accepted by the whole American society. These companies which are rooted out through the court system as presented by the federal trade commission are seen as those which act mostly against the will and the rights of the people thus making them vulnerable to any negative effect which comes along as a result of being tricked into some things (Posner, 1969)..

The goals of the federal trade commission are majorly three. Even though the activities and practices of this body run deep and they highly affect what people do and how they operate in their daily lives especially when it comes to business they are all aimed at making sure that the goals of this federal trade commission are achieved and that what matters most to them which is the protection of the consumers happens. the first strategic goal of the federal trade commission is to protect the consumers from unfair and deceptive practices in the marketplace as perpetuated by different agents in the economy and as the different identities in the economy decide and expect to perform them.

The other strategic goal of this federal trade commission is to maintain competition so that the marketplace does not get dominated by monopolies as this makes the lives of the consumers in danger of only getting fixed prices for something and being unable to change them. When there is a monopoly there is also a problem with how the quality of the service or product is delivered and therefore it is one of the difficult things that an economy can experience. There is always a problem with a monopoly because it is not possible for any monopoly to exist and the establishment of another firm that is not a monopoly to come into the market without a lot of struggles especially with the competition and the financial base. Therefore the maintenance of competition to prevent any kind of monopoly influence makes it very easy very good for this federal trade commission to operate as well as make sure that consumers get what is just for them and for the companies, firms, and institutions with which they deal with. (Posner, 1969).

The influence of the federal trade commission on the market of the products, the trust of the consumers, and the will of the consumers to buy or trade with some companies is of great significance. This is because FTC can make a big difference in the faith system of a people. for example, if the FTC notices a company wants to harm its customers, investigates the issue and makes sure that it is true and it gets to take the company to a court then this means the federal trade commission does not trust this company and therefore it immediately and directly reflects the meaning of a company’s importance to its customers. Therefore in cases of the companies which are taken to a court of law by the FTC, it becomes very difficult for the same companies to be trusted in the same manner they were trusted before by the customers and the agents who used to deal with them. This not only makes its sales to do gown but provides very complex structural difficulties because of the lack of trust resulting from what has been reported. This is an alarming situation and it makes most of the businesses fear what they have to do because in case they are ever placed by the federal trade commission as untrustworthy and going on with an illegal business or rather no up to standard it becomes very difficult to the same company to regain its ground when it comes to its trust and in an overall manner its performance in the market. (Weingast, & Moran, 1982).Consumer privacy laws are also highly affected through the efforts of the federal trade commission. This is possible especially with a more focus on internet issues whereby the federal trade commission focuses on what happens on the internet whereby the interaction between different people and agents in online communications and exchanges of all types happen and therefore through the evaluation and establishment of this the privacy and protection of the consumers of any online material be it service or even tangible products ordered online are protected and taken care of so that their personal sensitive information is not misused or collected by firms which are not trustworthy and those that which are only after making sure that their role and activities are coined as genuine when they only want to benefit themselves through the information of their clients (Clarkson, & Muris, 2008)..

With all these efforts to protect the customer, there have been court cases in different times and whereby the desire of the FTC to protect consumers has been seen and protected. Some of the major and the most recent court cases are cases to deal with; traffic jam events, Moda Latina BZ Inc, associated community services, steves distributing, reef industries, CBD meds, inc. all of these court cases have been presented and decide upon after a clear examination of all the sides and therefore they are of great significance and importance when it comes to any discussion to do with the federal trade commission. In the case of traffic jams events, even though the case is still pending the FTC has presented the complaint in the court about the marketer traffic jam events, and its owner called Jeansonne for multiple accounts and cases of deceptive conduct. This, therefore, is an example of a firm that tries to mislead the public but has been contained very fast by the FTC. In the case of Moda Latina BZ Inc., the perpetrators are reported with the mistake of targeting Latina consumers with Spanish language and making them believe in the money-making opportunities which they were advertising even though this proved to be untrue and therefore the founders and the perpetrators are taken to court. (Weingast, & Moran, 1982)..

In the case of Associated Community Services, Inc., FTC along with 46 agencies from 38 states have been able to stop a massive tele-funding operation that affected approximately 67 million us citizens. The perpetrators however collected 110 million using their deceptive solicitations which they came up with.

With FTC therefore the market is freer and it is a time for most of the businesses to consider being true to what they provide to their customers and also provide it in the right and the correct manner because the FTC is on a very keen lookout for these kinds of menace which make the consumers suffer in the hands of their service or product providers and therefore this is not allowed to happen every time. Therefore the market is free and clean with eh presence of FTC and it was not this way before when FTC was not available as the service and product providers could take place in unscrupulous activities which made them get what they needed with ease and fast leaving the consumers in great pain and agony after maybe losing a lot of their earnings. (Posner, 1969).Individual consumers as well as business owners also have a great experience when it comes to the issue of the protection of the rights of the individuals. Therefore these individual consumers through the different expositions of FTC can learn though never conclusively how a fake business might look like and therefore avoid. The business owners can also interact freely with their customers since it is through this that trust and faith can be gained.

In conclusion therefore the FTC can be termed as a very important and worthwhile part of the American trading culture which acts to sieve out what is harmful, unneeded, and unnecessary about the American trade culture. Therefore through this, society becomes even better and it is, therefore, possible to conduct clean business and clean operations even though always on the outlook of anything unfamiliar.

References

Business | FTC. (n.d.). FTC-I. Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://www.ftc.net/business/

‌ Weingast, B. R., & Moran, M. J. (1982). The myth of runaway bureaucracy: The case of the FTC. Regulation, 6, 33.Hetcher, S. (2000). FTC as Internet privacy norm entrepreneur, The. Vand. L. Rev., 53, 2041.

Solove, D. J., & Hartzog, W. (2014). The FTC and the new common law of privacy. Colum. L. Rev., 114, 583.

Posner, R. A. (1969). The federal trade commission. The University of Chicago Law Review, 37(1), 47-89.

Clarkson, K. W., & Muris, T. J. (2008). The Federal Trade Commission Since 1970. Cambridge University Press.