DMA Urges Marketers to Contact Congress to Prevent Over-Expansion of FTC Authority

April 5, 2010 — Hidden inside the financial reform bill are provisions that would grant the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the equivalent of extraordinary legislative powers. These provisions were already been passed by the House (H.R. 4173) and are currently being considered by the Senate Commerce Committee.

DMA is leading a broad coalition of member companies and other trade associations that oppose granting the FTC:

Unbridled authority to create rules about "unfair or deceptive acts or practices" across all but a few sectors of the American economy;
Power to seek immediate civil penalties for "unfair or deceptive acts or practices without first giving companies the opportunity to change their practices;"
Authority to go after companies for allegedly "aiding and abetting" others in an FTC Act violation, even without actual knowledge of the violation; and
Power to seek such penalties without coordinating with the Justice Department.

The Senate Commerce Committee is ready to act — now is the time your voice matters most.

Delegating such unbridled regulatory authority would harm the economy, limit market innovation, and jeopardize the jobs and products that flow from such innovation. The FTC could use expanded rulemaking authority to regulate areas where its involvement would hinder new and emerging business practices, such as Internet marketing. The threat of FTC rulemaking would lead to innovation reticence in the marketplace, stifling growth that would otherwise create a projected 2.6 million new jobs in the Internet marketing workforce over the next five years.

We urge you to contact your senators today and stress the importance of upholding the longstanding safeguards that prevent FTC overreaching. With DMAAction.org, connecting to Congress is as easy as 1, 2, 3,:

Write to your senators. Just click here to find out more about the DMAAction's automated letter system.
Call your senators using this suggested phone script.
Connect with your local media with this sample press release.

For more information on this issue, please contact Rachel Thomas, DMA's vice president of government affairs, by email at rthomas@the-dma.org or by phone at (202) 861-2443.

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