2.2: Law Enforcement
Stop anticompetitive mergers and business practices through law enforcement Other Information:
In addition to its law enforcement activity, the FTC provides substantial information to the business community and consumers
about the role of the antitrust laws and businesses’ obligations under those laws. Our Strategy: The FTC uses education and
outreach to increase business compliance, which helps prevent consumer injury, and augment its law enforcement efforts. The
agency pursues this strategy through guidance to the business community; outreach efforts to federal, state, and local agencies,
business groups, and consumers; development and publication of antitrust guidelines, policy statements, and reports; and speeches
and testimony. By using these mechanisms to signal its enforcement policies and priorities, the FTC seeks to deter would-be
violators of the antitrust laws. in its complaints, “analyses to aid public comment,” and press releases, the agency explains
the relevant facts and issues of cases in which it files complaints or obtains consent orders, so the nature of the competitive
problems is clear. each successful enforcement action not only promotes competition in one or more relevant markets, but also
serves to communicate to the business and legal communities that the FTC can and will take action to challenge similar transactions
or conduct in the future. This information greatly facilitates antitrust lawyers’ counseling of their clients and prevents
many anticompetitive mergers from being proposed or anticompetitive practices from being implemented. in addition, the FTC
educates the public through guidelines, congressional or other types of testimony, conferences, speeches, hearings, and workshops
(such as the series of workshops on the horizontal merger guidelines and intellectual property rights); advisory opinions
(addressing, for example, the licensing requirements for limited service health care clinics); and reports (such as the reports
on the ethanol market and on the savings lost to consumers through pay-for-delay agreements). as a complement to the FTC enforcement
activity, the agency also advises, when asked, other federal and state government officials about the possible effects that
various regulatory and legislative proposals may have in creating, maintaining, or forestalling competitive markets. The FTC
has a long and distinguished history in this area. The FTC advocates market-based solutions through the publication of studies
and reports, and participation in state and federal legislative and regulatory fora. The agency also participates as an amicus
curiae (friend of the court) in judicial proceedings when substantial questions of antitrust law or competition policy are
involved, especially when the FTC may add a different perspective to the deliberations because of its specialized knowledge
or experience. finally, in an effort to continue educating consumers and businesses on the important role of competition in
providing the most valuable and efficient mix of price, choice, and innovation, the FTC continues to publish reference and
case-related documents. another way the FTC achieves this goal is to improve how topical information, case materials, and
reference documents are organized—in an effort to aid visitors in searching and finding relevant information—and to continuously
update the growing body of reference material. Performance Results: The FTC uses one measure to assess its performance in
preventing consumer injury through education. The key measure (Performance Measure 2.2.1) tracks the volume of traffic on
the FTC website on antitrust-related pages that are relevant to policymakers, the business and legal communities, and the
public at large. This performance measure is an indicator of the flow of information provided to the public. successful outreach
and education efforts, as reflected by this measure, will help consumers, because increased knowledge and understanding of
the antitrust laws will help businesses stay in compliance. This measure also will help ensure that the agency engages in
consumer, business, and international education that advances the culture of competition, which enhances consumer welfare.
The results of this measure would seem to indicate a significant continued public interest in the FTC and its Maintain competition
strategic goal. in addition, the broad and increasing distribution of educational and policy materials through electronic
channels represents important leveraging of the agency’s resources.
Indicator(s):
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