Blog

“Social distancing,” “shelter-in-place,” “virtual happy hour”— these are some of the new expressions on everyone’s lips the past few weeks. For many, add “remote learning” to the list. Because of school closures, millions of students are now using online, education technology (or “ed tech”) services to engage in remote learning from home. And while this fills a vital need, it’s important to keep in mind that many of these ed tech services collect...

I want to thank Mike Moiseyev for his dedication and commitment to the Bureau of Competition. Mike has led the Mergers I Division for the past 16-and-a-half years, becoming Assistant Director in 2003. Mike joined the Bureau of Competition in 1989, following law school. He has managed some of the most significant cases in the Bureau during his career. Among the most recent of these are the Bureau’s challenge to the consummated merger of Otto Bock...

I want to thank Kevin Hahm for his work in the Bureau of Competition and, most importantly, for his contribution to our competition enforcement. Kevin, most recently, the Assistant Director for the Mergers IV Division, has been an integral part of the reinvigoration of the hospital merger enforcement efforts within the Bureau. Before becoming Assistant Director, Kevin had served as Deputy Assistant Director of the Mergers IV Division. He worked...

If your business makes “smart” devices, you’ll want to read about Tapplock’s settlement with the FTC. It’s one more example of why businesses in the Internet of Things (IoT) space need to think about privacy and security when designing connected products. Tapplock, Inc. is an IoT company that sells Internet-connected fingerprint-enabled padlocks, called smart locks. The smart locks interact with an app that lets users lock and unlock their smart...

As we navigate uncharted waters in our work and home lives in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a few changes have happened quickly. We claimed “home office” space to take on the challenges of working remotely. Bureau of Competition staff shifted from in-person meetings to conference calls, made from unlikely venues (such as couches) without all the usual professional trappings (sweatpants optional, children entirely possible). Most...

Consumers hate illegal robocalls. And as the thousands of reports pouring into the FTC indicate, they also hate robocalls that exploit concerns about Coronavirus. In recent months, the FTC has taken innovative steps to take on not only illegal robocallers, but also companies that “assist and facilitate” their conduct. Just last week, FTC staff sent warning letters to nine businesses that provide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services or...

As a business owner, you’ve seen the headlines about financial relief that may be available to some companies through the Small Business Administration (SBA). But you’ve also heard about scammers who extract a grain of truth from the news and distort it in an effort to cheat small businesses. Now more than ever it’s critical for small business owners to go straight to the source for accurate information about what’s happening at the SBA. And that...

Consumers have come to expect their devices to be portable, but what about their data? The FTC just announced Data to Go, a public workshop set for September 22, 2020, to take a closer look at the potential benefits and challenges to consumers and competition raised by data portability. Data portability gives consumers more control over their data, allowing them to move it from one service to another or to themselves. What kind of information are...

Years ago, the Australian group Men at Work asked the musical question “Who Can It Be Now?” In the ongoing battle against Coronavirus scams, FTC staff just sent warning letters to nine companies reminding them of the potential ramifications of behind-the-scenes involvement in illegal COVID-19 promotions. The more appropriate name for the group now would be Men and Women at Work from Home, but when it comes to the conduct targeted in the letters...

On Friday, March 13, as part of the Bureau’s response to the COVID-19 coronavirus situation, and in partnership with the Antitrust Division of DOJ, we announced that the Bureau’s Premerger Notification Office would adopt a temporary e-filing program for notifications under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Among other changes, this transition involved the temporary suspension of the Bureau’s processing of requests to grant early termination of the Act’s...