The US FTC expands its interpretation of its competition enforcement mandate

On 10 November 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) issued a Policy Statement (the Policy Statement) outlining a significant expansion of its mandate to target “unfair methods of competition” under Section 5 of the FTC Act (Section 5). In a concurrently published statement, FTC Chair Lina Khan explained that the agency intends to redefine its interpretation of its authority under Section 5 “to challenge a host of unlawful business practices,” authority that Chair Khan says the FTC has allowed to “lay dormant” in recent decades. The Commission voted 3-1 to approve the Policy Statement, with Republican Commissioner Christine Wilson issuing a lengthy dissent, calling it a “radical departure from the Commission’s recent enforcement efforts, and a dramatic expansion of the