Federal Trade Commission Act

Examples of Federal Trade Commission Act in the following topics:

• Federal Efforts to Control Monopoly

  • The Sherman Antitrust Act, passed in 1890, declared that no person or business could monopolize trade or could combine or conspire with someone else to restrict trade.
  • In 1914, Congress passed two more laws designed to bolster the Sherman Antitrust Act: the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.
  • The Clayton Antitrust Act defined more clearly what constituted illegal restraint of trade.
  • The Federal Trade Commission Act established a government commission aimed at preventing unfair and anti-competitive business practices.
  • The Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department watch for potential monopolies or act to prevent mergers that threaten to reduce competition so severely that consumers could suffer.

• Social and Legal Considerations

  • Advertising is regulated by the authority of the Federal Trade Commission, a United States administrative agency, to prohibit "unfair and deceptive acts or practices in commerce. " While it makes laymen's sense to assume that being deceptive is being unfair, deceptiveness in practice has been treated separately by the FTC, leaving unfairness to refer only to other types.
  • All commercial acts may be deceptive, not just advertising, but noncommercial activity such as advertising for political candidates is not subject to prosecution under the FTC Act.
  • In addition to federal laws, each state has its own unfair competition law to prohibit false and misleading advertising.
  • The UCL "borrows heavily from section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act" but has developed its own body of case law.
  • In 1976, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that these claims were misleading, and that Listerine had "no efficacy" at either preventing or alleviating the symptoms of sore throats and colds.

• Anti-Trust Laws

  • Wilson sought to encourage competition and curb trusts by using the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the Clayton Antitrust Act.
  • For instance, the 1916 Federal Farm Loan Act provided for issuance of low-cost, long term mortgages to farmers, and the Adamson Act imposed an eight-hour workday in the railroad industry (prompted by the 1916 summer strike by railroad employees).
  • Wilson also attempted to curtail child labor with the Keating-Owen Act.
  • Wilson deviated from his presidential predecessors, who relied on lawsuits to break trusts and monopolies, by founding a new trustbusting approach through encouraging competition through the Federal Trade Commission.
  • The Federal Trade Commission effectively restricted unfair trade practices and enforced the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act.

• Wilsonian Progressivism

  • Included among these were the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, and the Federal Farm Loan Act.
  • Within a few years after the Revenue Act was implemented, the federal income tax replaced tariffs as the chief source of revenue for the government.
  • It was also aided through the passage of the Federal Farm Loan Act, (1916), which set up Farm Loan Banks to support farmers.
  • Wilson deviated from his presidential predecessors, who relied on lawsuits to break trusts and monopolies, by founding a new trustbusting approach through encouraging competition through the Federal Trade Commission.
  • The Federal Trade Commission effectively restricted unfair trade practices and enforced the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act.

• The Regulators

  • The Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 consequently gave the federal government a preeminent role in protecting small investors from fraud and making it easier for them to understand companies' financial reports.
  • The commission enforces a web of rules to achieve that goal.
  • In addition, the commission requires companies to tell the public when their own officers buy or sell shares of their stock; the commission believes that these "insiders" possess intimate information about their companies and that their trades can indicate to other investors their degree of confidence in their companies' future.
  • The agency also seeks to prevent insiders from trading in stock based on information that has not yet become public.
  • The Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversees the futures markets.

• Securities Exchange Act of 1934

  • The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is a law governing the secondary trading of securities, financial markets and their participants.
  • The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (also called the Exchange Act, '34 Act, or Act of '34) is a law governing the secondary trading of securities, including stocks, bonds, and debentures, in the United States of America.
  • The 1934 Act also established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency primarily responsible for enforcement of United States federal securities law.
  • The '34 Act also regulates broker-dealers without a status for trading securities.
  • The '34 Act extends this requirement to securities traded in the secondary market.

• Government Regulation

  • It "safeguards human health and the environment by providing several major incentives for regulated entities to voluntarily come into compliance with federal environmental Laws & Regulations. " Affected entities must voluntarily discover and act to correct any violations that occur.
  • Professional conduct - the regulation of members of professional bodies, either acting under statutory or contractual powers.
  • At the federal level, one the earliest institutions was the Interstate Commerce Commission which had its roots in earlier state-based regulatory commissions and agencies.
  • Later agencies include the Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission , Civil Aeronautics Board, and various other institutions.
  • These institutions vary from industry to industry and at the federal and state level.

• The Tariff

  • The United States Revenue Act of 1913 re-imposed the federal income tax, and lowered basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%.
  • The United States Revenue Act of 1913 (also known as the Tariff Act, Underwood Tariff or Underwood-Simmons Act) re-imposed the federal income tax following the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment.
  • Congress rejected proposals for a tariff board to scientifically fix rates, but did set up a study commission to monitor them.
  • The Act also provided for the re-institution of a federal income tax as a means of compensating for anticipated lost revenue due to the reduction of tariff duties.
  • Within a few years after the Revenue Act was implemented, the federal income tax replaced tariffs as the chief source of revenue for the government.

• Standard-Setting Groups: SEC, AICPA, and FASB

  • The APB and the related Securities Exchange Commission were unable to operate completely independently of the U.S. government
  • That is left to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
  • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a federal agency which holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets in the United States.
  • The SEC was created by Section 4 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (now codified as 15 U.S.C. § 78d and commonly referred to as the 1934 Act).
  • The SEC was given the power to license and regulate stock exchanges, the companies whose securities were traded on exchanges, and the brokers and dealers who conducted the trading.

• PACs and Campaigns

  • At the federal level, an organization becomes a PAC when it receives or spends more than $1,000 for the purpose of influencing a federal election, according to the Federal Election Campaign Act.
  • Federal Election Commission that laws prohibiting corporate and union political expenditures were unconstitutional.
  • In 1947, as part of the Taft-Hartley Act, the U.S.
  • In 1971, Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA).
  • In 1974, Amendments to FECA defined how a PAC could operate and established the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to enforce the nation's campaign finance laws.