FTC's Changing Model Raises Questions About Its Mission

In a Sept. 14 speech on the Federal Trade Commission's "model, mission and future," Commissioner Mark Meador argued that the FTC's traditional institutional model has "threatened to overshadow" its underlying mission.¹

Meanwhile, Chairman Andrew Ferguson has signaled that the commission is moving away from its internal administrative adjudicatory process and toward federal court litigation, while embracing more direct presidential supervision of the agency.

In recent speeches and statements, FTC leaders have sketched out a vision of an agency that operates differently from its recent past but continues to play a distinct role as a competition and consumer protection enforcer.

However, both officials continue to defend a distinct role for the FTC as an antitrust enforcer alongside the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and Ferguson has pushed back against recent proposals to consolidate federal antitrust enforcement within the DOJ.²