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Telephone numbers placed on the National Do Not Call Registry will remain on it permanently due to the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007, which became law in February 2008. More than 157 million phone numbers are on the National Do Not Call Registry.

Under the Act, the Federal Trade Commission will continue to remove telephone numbers that have been disconnected and reassigned to other customers. Consumers can delete their telephone numbers from the registry at any time by calling 1-888-382-1222 (TTY 1-866-290-4236) – the call must be made from the telephone number they wish to delete.

The Do-Not-Call Fee Extension Act of 2007 also was enacted, setting the annual fees telemarketers will pay to access the registry in fiscal year 2009 at $54 for each area code of data accessed or $14,850 for access to every area code in the registry, whichever is less. Telemarketers may access the first 5 area codes of data at no charge, and certain exempt organizations will continue to access all data at no charge. For each fiscal year beginning after fiscal year 2009, the fees will be increased at the rate of change of the consumer price index, unless the change is less than 1 percent, in which case the fees will not be adjusted.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman William E. Kovacic will participate in the seventh annual International Competition Network (ICN) Conference in Kyoto, Japan, April 14-16, 2008, when senior government antitrust officials, private sector antitrust experts from around the world, and representatives from intergovernmental organizations will discuss competition issues.

The ICN conference will focus on the recent work of its four substantive working groups: unilateral conduct, mergers, cartels, and competition policy implementation. ICN member agencies participate in these project-oriented working groups to address policy and enforcement issues and formulate proposals for ICN consensus. Private sector experts participate actively in the working groups. Conference discussions will focus on topics addressed by these groups, including recommended practices for the assessment of dominance and substantive merger analysis, settlements in cartel investigations, and the promotion of competition policy in developing and transition economies. The conference will finalize work programs for the coming year.

In October 2001, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) joined with antitrust agencies from 13 other jurisdictions around the world to create the ICN. The ICN now includes 102 member agencies from 91 jurisdictions. The ICN has two main goals: to promote greater substantive and procedural convergence among antitrust authorities on sound competition principles; and to provide support for new antitrust agencies, both in enforcing their laws and in building strong competition cultures in their countries.

The following portions of the conference will be open to the press:

MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2008: 7th ANNUAL ICN CONFERENCE (DAY 1)

9:00 a.m. (Kyoto), 8:00 p.m. (EDT, April 13) – Opening Remarks
Opening remarks by Kazuhiko Takeshima, Chairman of the Japan Fair Trade Commission, and Sheridan Scott, Chair of the ICN Steering Group and Canada’s Commissioner of Competition

9:45 a.m. (Kyoto), 8:45 p.m. (EDT, April 13) – Unilateral Conduct Working Group Session
After remarks by Dr. Bernhard Heitzer, President of the German Bundeskartellamt, Randolph Tritell, Director of the FTC’s Office of International Affairs, will moderate discussion of the assessment of dominance, and Bruno Lasserre, President of the French Competition Council, will moderate discussion of working group reports on state-created monopolies recommended practices and conduct papers (predatory pricing and exclusive dealing). FTC’s Cynthia Lewis Lagdameo, Counsel for International Antitrust, is a panelist. Delegates will discuss these topics in breakout sessions.

2:15 p.m. (Kyoto), 1:15 a.m. (EDT) – Cartel Working Group Session
A panel discussion will examine the use and benefits of settlements in cartel investigations. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Scott Hammond of the Antitrust Division is a panelist. Following the panel, delegates will further discuss cartel settlements and leniency in small group breakout sessions.

TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2008: 7th ANNUAL ICN CONFERENCE (DAY 2)

9:00 a.m. (Kyoto), 8:00 p.m. (EDT) – Merger Working Group Session
Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Thomas O. Barnett will participate on a panel addressing efficiencies in merger analysis. Antitrust Division Director of Operations Robert Kramer will present recommended practices for merger analysis on the legal framework for merger analysis, the use of market shares, and the role of entry/expansion. There will then be a presentation on the work of the Notification & Procedures subgroup from the FTC’s Maria Coppola Tineo, Counsel for International Antitrust. Following the panel, delegates will further discuss these topics in small group breakout sessions.

1:30 p.m. (Kyoto), 12:30 a.m. (EDT) – Special Program on Abuse of Superior Bargaining Position
FTC Chairman William E. Kovacic will participate on this panel discussing the concept of “abuse of a superior bargaining position.” Frederic Jenny, Chairman of the OECD Competition Committee, will moderate the panel.

3:30 p.m. (Kyoto), 2:30 a.m. (EDT) – Competition Policy Implementation Working Group
Session
Elizabeth Farina, President of Brazil’s CADE, will chair the session. In the first portion, John Fingleton, CEO of the UK Office of Fair Trading, will moderate a discussion of the ICN’s work on identifying attributes of an effective agency. FTC Chairman William E. Kovacic is a panelist. The second will include a presentation of an experimental program for sharing expertise and experience among ICN members. Delegates will discuss agency effectiveness, partnerships among agencies, and funding and capacity building in small group breakout sessions.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2008: 7th ANNUAL ICN CONFERENCE (DAY 3)

8:30 a.m. (Kyoto), 7:30 p.m. (EDT, April 15) – Presentation by ICN Steering Group Vice Chairs on Advocacy and Implementation, Outreach, and International Coordination

9:00 a.m. (Kyoto), 8:00 p.m. (EDT, April 15) – Joint Implementation/Outreach Panels
Philip Collins, Chairman of the U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading, will moderate.

12:00 p.m. (Kyoto), 11:00 p.m. (EDT, April 15) – Closing Ceremony

Complete information about the conference, to be held in the Kyoto International Conference Center, is available at http://www.icn-kyoto.org/

Federal Trade Commission Chairman William E. Kovacic and Commissioners Pamela Jones Harbour, Jon Leibowitz, and J. Thomas Rosch today presented FTC testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, highlighting the agency’s accomplishments since the last FTC reauthorization hearing in September, and providing comments on the proposed “Federal Trade Commission Reauthorization Act of 2008.”
“The FTC is the only federal agency with both consumer protection and competition jurisdiction in broad sectors of the economy,” the testimony stated. “The agency enforces laws that prohibit anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions and business practices that are harmful to consumers because they are anticompetitive, deceptive, or unfair. The FTC also promotes informed consumer choice and understanding of the competitive process.”

The testimony recalled some FTC law enforcement actions since September, when the Commission last provided reauthorization testimony. Matters in the antitrust arena include:

• The FTC charged drug manufacturer Cephalon with unlawfully attempting to prevent competition for its branded drug, Provigil, by paying competing firms not to sell generic versions of the drug until 2012.
• Equitable Resources’ acquisition of the Peoples Natural Gas Company, a subsidiary of Dominion Resources, was abandoned as an FTC challenge to the deal was on appeal. The testimony noted that the Commission is continuing to examine and address a wide range of issues in the energy markets, including its new authority regarding manipulation of wholesale crude oil, gasoline, or petroleum distillate markets.
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a 2005 Commission order requiring Chicago Bridge & Iron Co., N.V. and its CB&I subsidiary to divest assets acquired in 2001 from Pitt-Des Moines, Inc. used in the business of designing, engineering, and building field-erected cryogenic storage tanks. The court endorsed the Commission’s findings that the merged firms controlled over 70 percent of the market, and that entry into the market was unlikely given the high entry barriers based on the incumbents’ reputation and control of skilled crews.
• Consumer protection matters include:
• In November 2007, the FTC announced six settlements and a federal court action against companies that violated the Do Not Call provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule, resulting in millions of dollars in civil penalties for rule violations.
• In addressing data security issues, the agency initiated five cases; released a new online, interactive tutorial to educate businesses on sound data security practices; and hosted workshops on the private sector use of Social Security numbers and behavioral advertising. Following the workshop on behavioral advertising, the Commission staff released a proposed set of principles to guide the development of self-regulation in this area and is seeking comment on these principles.
• The Commission sent more than 200 warning letters to mortgage advertisers and the media outlets that carried their ads, regarding ads that may be deceptive in violation of the FTC Act or may violate the Truth In Lending Act. The FTC is investigating several mortgage advertisers and will continue to monitor claims made in mortgage advertising.
• The FTC announced three cases targeting mortgage foreclosure rescue scams, and three settlements against “payday lenders” who failed to provide consumers with annual percentage rate information, as required by law.
• In reviewing its environmental marketing guidelines, the Commission is holding public workshops on emerging green marketing topics, including a recent workshop on carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates and an upcoming workshop on green packaging.
• Last fall the agency used its US SAFE WEB Act authority to cooperate with foreign partners to combat a Canadian-based bogus lottery and prize-promotion scam, and an international spam enterprise.

Regarding the proposed “Federal Trade Commission Reauthorization Act of 2008,” the testimony described Commission support for efforts to increase the agency’s resources to meet its anticipated needs.

The proposed legislation would give the FTC authority to seek civil penalties for knowing violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act. In addressing this provision, the Commission reiterated its support for new authority to seek civil penalties in areas where its existing remedies are insufficient to achieve the law enforcement goal of deterrence. These areas include spyware, data security, and telephone records pretexting.

The proposed legislation would eliminate the requirement that the FTC refer civil penalty cases to the Department of Justice and would, instead, allow the FTC to file its own civil penalty cases in its own name. The Commission supports giving the FTC the authority to litigate its own civil penalty cases. The Commission also supports the portion of the proposed legislation that would allow the FTC to represent itself before the Supreme Court in the appeal of any litigation to which the FTC was a party.

The testimony also mentioned that the Commission generally supports provisions in the bill that would repeal the FTC Act’s exemption for certain non-profit entities. In some instances, the Commission’s inability to reach conduct of various non-profit entities has prevented the Commission from taking action against potentially anticompetitive conduct of non-profits engaged in business. And although the FTC has been successful in asserting jurisdiction against “sham” nonprofits, the testimony explained, the proposed legislation would help avoid protracted factual inquiries and litigation battles to establish jurisdiction over such entities.

The testimony noted that the telecommunications common carrier exemption bars the agency from reaching certain conduct by telecommunications companies. The Commission has testified in favor of the repeal of the exemption on several occasions and continues to endorse its repeal.

In addition, the testimony addressed a proposal in the bill that would give the FTC the ability to challenge practices that aid or abet violations of the FTC Act. Effective law enforcement often requires reaching not only the direct participants in unfair or deceptive practices, but also those who support and enable the direct participants to violate the law, the testimony explained. The need for this authority has become particularly clear in the Internet era, many new business models on the Internet involve numerous actors with murky and varying roles in complicated channels of distribution.

The proposed legislation provides mechanisms for the FTC to use streamlined procedures for rulemaking on consumer protection issues generally, and in particular for subprime mortgage lending and nontraditional mortgage loans. The testimony makes two main points on this issue. First, it states that, on many occasions in recent years, Congress has identified specific consumer protection issues requiring legislative and regulatory action, and has given the FTC the opportunity to issue rules on such issues using simpler rulemaking procedures. The Commission has supported this approach. Second, it states that the Commission has previously supported proposals to allow the FTC to use simplified rulemaking procedures to promulgate rules whenever federal financial regulators commence their own rulemaking under the FTC Act. This will help avoid application of inconsistent standards among regulated entities, improve interagency coordination, and ensure that any FTC rulemaking does not lag years behind that of other financial regulators.

The Commission vote authorizing the presentation of the testimony and its inclusion in the formal record was 4-0.

Copies of the testimony are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish (bilingual counselors are available to take complaints), or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

Commissioner William E. Kovacic today assumes the role of Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. On March 26, President George W. Bush announced his intention to designate Kovacic to serve as Chairman upon the departure of Deborah Platt Majoras. Kovacic has served as a Commissioner at the agency since January 2006, following his nomination by the President and confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

“I am pleased and honored the President has designated me to serve as Chairman for this jewel of an agency,” said Kovacic. “I look forward to working with my fellow Commissioners and the FTC’s staff to advance an active agenda that will preserve competition and protect American consumers.”

Prior to his appointment as FTC Commissioner, Kovacic was the E.K. Gubin Professor of Government Contracts Law at George Washington University Law School, where he began to teach in 1999. He was the FTC’s General Counsel from 2001 through the end of 2004. Kovacic earlier worked at the Commission from 1979 to 1983, first with the Bureau of Competition’s Planning Office and later as an attorney advisor to former Commissioner George W. Douglas. After leaving the FTC in 1983, Kovacic was an associate with the Washington, DC, office of Bryan Cave, where he practiced in the firm’s antitrust and government contracts departments, until joining the George Mason University School of Law in 1986. Earlier in his career, he spent one year on the majority staff of the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which was chaired by Senator Philip A. Hart.

Since 1992, Kovacic has served as an adviser on antitrust and consumer protection issues to the governments of Armenia, Benin, Egypt, El Salvador, Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Panama, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot,
stop and avoid them. To file a complaint, or to get free information on any of 150 consumer
topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at
http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Bureau of Competition seeks to prevent business practices that restrain competition. The Bureau carries out its mission by investigating alleged law violations and, when appropriate, recommending that the Commission take formal enforcement action.

Commission issues staff report: The Commission has issued a staff report highlighting the challenges of consumer protection in the face of emerging and evolving technologies in the next ten years. The report summarizes the proceedings of the FTC’s three-day public hearings, “Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-ade,” and which will inform its consumer protection efforts in the next decade.

The report explains the FTC will work to prevent Internet fraud by using its new powers under the U.S. SAFE WEB Act to coordinate and cooperate more closely with foreign consumer protection officials, ensure that consumer-producers who engage in activities to market and advertise products for consideration do so within the confines of laws prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or practices in trade, and develop new strategies and to harness the power of technology to deliver timely and effective consumer education messages.

It states that consumers increasingly want to access content, including commercial messages; create and share content and information about themselves; and pay for goods and services how, when, and where they want. The FTC will work to prevent unfair or deceptive acts and practices that adversely affect the ability of consumers to make these types of choices.

It also notes that products in the marketplace are changing constantly and rapidly as a result of obsolescence, convergence, interoperability, digital rights management and a host of other considerations. The FTC will work to prevent consumer harm arising from these changes by monitoring and prosecuting those who engage in unfairness or deception to exploit consumers’ lack of familiarity with new products, and using consumer education programs to edify consumers.

The report states that the FTC will work to protect the privacy and security of consumer information in this new information environment by aggressively enforcing its special statutes related to privacy as well as Section 5 of the FTC Act, by encouraging the development and implementation of self-regulatory standards related to new technologies that raise privacy and security concerns, such as in the area of behavioral marketing, and by engaging in substantial business education efforts to encourage the adoption of reasonable security procedures to decrease the risk of data breaches.

Finally, the report states that technology and business practices will continue to evolve rapidly, creating the potential for benefits and harms to consumers. The FTC will seek to prevent injury to consumers in this dynamic marketplace by continuing to engage in substantial consumer education efforts and by serving as a “convener,” regularly bringing together interested parties to discuss new technologies and their consumer protection implications. For example, a two day public event, “Spam Summit: the Next Generation of Threats and Solutions,” was held July 11-12, 2007, a town hall titled “Ehavioral Advertising: Tracking, Targeting, and Technology” was held November 1-2, 2007, and “Beyond Voice: Mapping the Mobile Marketplace” will be held May 6 and 7.

The Commission vote to approve issuing the report was 5-0.

Copies of the report are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.