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Franchise Fundamentals: Researching franchise opportunities

Lesley Fair
No one would try to run a marathon with just a few days of preparation. It takes months of rigorous training before you can step up to the starting line with confidence. Of course, the process of studying, selecting, opening, and operating a franchise can make a marathon feel like a stroll in the park. In the second of our Franchise Fundamentals blog series, we take a closer look at the extensive research “road work” prospective franchisees...

Franchise Fundamentals: Debunking five myths about buying a franchise

Lesley Fair
For many people, buying a franchise has proven to be a good choice, but like any other financial decision, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question “Is a franchise right for me ?” Buying a franchise involves a major financial outlay and owning one often requires an “all in” lifestyle commitment. If you’re thinking about whether your future could be in a franchise, follow the FTC Business Blog for a series we’re calling Franchise...

Spring Meeting updates

Holly Vedova, Bureau of Competition
By any measure, this year has been extraordinary. Our litigation workload continues to expand, with eight cases in various stages of administrative or federal court litigation and three on appeal. The latest, in which a unanimous Commission authorized staff to block the merger of the two largest providers of home mortgage loan origination systems and other key lender software tools, is an enormous undertaking, involving several horizontal and...

BC’s Criminal Liaison Unit is Off to the Races

Holly Vedova, Director of the Bureau of Competition
Last year the Bureau of Competition created its own Criminal Liaison Unit (“CLU”) as part of a Commission initiative to expand its existing criminal referral program and protect the public from criminal conduct. Headed by two former DOJ Antitrust Division criminal prosecutors, the CLU works with other BC staff to identify and refer to criminal prosecutors conduct uncovered during the course of FTC investigations and litigations. While the FTC is...

An Inquiry into Cloud Computing Business Practices: The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comments

The FTC Office of Technology
The FTC just released a Request for Information (RFI) on the business practices of Cloud Computing Providers. The RFI is a tool to gather information and inform the FTC’s understanding of cloud computing – we're interested in hearing about issues from users of cloud services, academics, civil society groups, industry participants, and more. Our interests are similar to those of other regulatory colleagues in the US [1], UK [2], France [3], Japan...

Chatbots, deepfakes, and voice clones: AI deception for sale

Michael Atleson, Attorney, FTC Division of Advertising Practices
You may have heard of simulation theory, the notion that nothing is real and we’re all part of a giant computer program. Let’s assume at least for the length of this blog post that this notion is untrue. Nonetheless, we may be heading for a future in which a substantial portion of what we see, hear, and read is a computer-generated simulation. We always keep it real here at the FTC, but what happens when none of us can tell real from fake? In a...

Lurking Beneath the Surface: Hidden Impacts of Pixel Tracking

The FTC Office of Technology
A deep dive into the technical side of FTC’s recent cases on digital health platforms, GoodRx & BetterHelp The Federal Trade Commission recently took enforcement action against GoodRx [1] and BetterHelp [2], two digital healthcare platforms, for allegedly sharing user health data with third parties for advertising. Both cases highlighted the use of third-party tracking pixels, which enable platforms to amass, analyze, and infer information about...

Tenant screening practices: The FTC wants to hear from you

Whitney Moore, Attorney, FTC Division of Privacy and Identity Protection
Millions of people in the U.S. rent their home. Their landlord could be a small mom-and-pop property owner, a large property management company, a public housing agency, or some other kind of organization. Many of these landlords buy applicants’ credit reports or use tenant screening companies to assist in evaluating prospective tenants. Tenant screening companies are consumer reporting agencies that compile information about the prospective...

FTC crunches the 2022 numbers. See where scammers continue to crunch consumers.

Lesley Fair
There are prime numbers, irrational numbers, and Fibonacci’s numbers – but from a consumer protection perspective, no number is quite as sobering as the dollar amount that people reported losing to fraud in 2022. According to new data from the FTC , that number is almost $8.8 billion and it’s up 30% over the year before. The Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book reflects reports received through the Consumer Sentinel Network , a database of...

A Century of Technological Evolution at the Federal Trade Commission

Stephanie T. Nguyen, Chief Technologist
I am honored to announce the creation of the Office of Technology (OT) at the Federal Trade Commission, a team that will provide technical expertise across agency matters and strengthen the agency’s ability to enforce the nation’s competition and consumer protection laws. We are hiring technologists to join the team. Staying on the cutting edge of emerging technology has long been a core part of the FTC's mandate. The emergence of the radio in...