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The Federal Trade Commission amended its Rules of Practice to grant authority to the agency’s commissioners or general counsel under very limited circumstances to take action such as accepting settlements in the event that the Commission lacks a quorum.

The amendment to Commission Rule 0.7 delegates such authority for limited purposes in rare cases such as those in which all the Commissioners are recused from a matter. It applies only in cases in which (1) the action would not adversely affect a party or intervenor entitled to petition the full Commission for review, or (2) parties or intervenors who could otherwise file such a petition waived their right to discretionary review by the Commission. The rule amendment is similar to a delegation of authority passed by the Commission in 1994. See Delegation of Authority, 59 Fed. Reg. 61336 (Nov. 30, 1994).

The Commission vote to issue the Federal Register Notice setting forth the amendment to its Rules of Practice was 2-0.

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