Federal Trade Commission and the Act

| Federal Trade Commission and the Act | Prepared for ASCM630.9040, Professor Charles Carey |

Candy Mott-Harris
3/26/2012
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Contents

ABSTRACT 2 HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ACT 2 FALSE AND DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING 5 BAIT AND SWITCH ADVERTISING/TACTICS 8 CONSUMER FRAUD 10 IDENTIFYING, VERIFYING AND PREVENTING DECEPTION 12 CLOSING STATEMENTS ABOUT THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 13 BIBLIOGRAPHY 14

ABSTRACT

The paper will serve as a historical background overview of how the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC) came into existence. The paper will also break down the key components for which the FTC covers, such as deceptive advertising, baiting and switching and consumer fraud. There will be examples of each of those issues at hand to demonstrate how it happened. The paper will include an argument within the Bait and Switch techniques where some claims have been made that it has been beneficial to consumers who got baited. The paper will also look into ways of determining if the claims are deceptive, fraudulent, and how to best act on such claims. Finally, the paper will provide a closing overview of the FTC as it is today, and what it has done for the consumers since its inception.
HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ACT

Who is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)? It is a federal administrative agency that is tasked with the responsibility of enforcing the Federal Trade Commission Act as well as some other consumer protection acts. Some of the acts that the Federal Trade Commission enforce are false and deceptive advertising, bait and switching, and consumer fraud. Sometimes they may work alongside of the Food and Drug Administration, especially when it is based on a health claim and cure. The FTC was created in 1915. According to the 1916 Annual Report filed by the FTC, at that time, the legal department’s duties were to “assist the Commission in the enforcement of Section 5 of the Trade Commission

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