FTC Annual Report Highlights Aggressive Enforcement & Consumer Protection

The Federal Trade Commission's fiscal year 2023 annual report released this week provides an in-depth look at the agency's aggressive enforcement efforts over the past year to protect consumers and crack down on anti-competitive conduct.

"The talented FTC staff made Americans' lives better through vigorous enforcement of our antitrust and consumer protection laws," said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. "As new technologies proliferate, we're staying ahead of the curve."

A major focus was reining in alleged abuses by big tech companies taking advantage of consumers:

• The FTC sued Amazon, accusing the e-commerce giant of misleadingly enrolling millions of consumers into its Prime subscription service without consent and making cancellation processes confusing.
• Separate cases were brought against Amazon and Microsoft for violating children's online privacy laws by improperly collecting kids' data without parental approval.
• The agency took action against Ring for failing to secure its home security cameras, allowing hackers to take control and employees to inappropriately view customer videos.

The FTC announced what it called the largest telemarketing sweep ever in partnership with over 100 federal and state agencies, going after operations responsible for billions of illegal robocalls. It also sued the owners of an alleged get-rich-quick scheme falsely claiming to use artificial intelligence to dramatically increase earnings on e-commerce sites.

Promoting Competition

On the competition front, the FTC continued its aggressive approach to blocking mergers and alleged monopolization schemes:

• It filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon accusing the company of illegally maintaining its monopoly power over sellers on its marketplace through abusive tactics.
• In partnership with 17 state attorneys general, the case alleges Amazon hiked fees on sellers and raised consumer prices through anti-competitive practices.
• The FTC sued the nation's largest private equity-owned anesthesia firm and its owner for an alleged multi-year effort to illegally monopolize anesthesiology services in parts of Texas.

The report highlighted the FTC's challenges to vertical mergers in healthcare data, video game platforms and other sectors where it alleged anti-competitive harm to markets.

Beyond enforcement, the agency worked to rewrite merger guidelines to better reflect modern market realities and submitted legal briefs advocating for updating antitrust laws and analysis in the courts. The FTC emphasized working closely with state partners as well as prioritizing public outreach and listening sessions across the country to hear directly from Americans impacted.

As AI, algorithms and other new technologies raise fresh competition issues, the FTC vowed to stay "forward-looking" in its approach and ensure companies cannot use AI as an exemption from obeying existing laws. With companies expected to spend hundreds of millions to fight the FTC's bold enforcement agenda, Chair Khan framed the FTC's work as protecting the foundations of free markets and economic liberty.

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