Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Khan announced today that an open meeting of the Commission will be held virtually on Thursday, May 23, 2024. The meeting is scheduled to start at 1 pm ET and will begin with a session for members of the public to address the Commission.
The tentative agenda for the May 23 Commission meeting includes several key items:
Firstly, staff from the Bureau of Consumer Protection’s Division of Marketing Practices will present on the Commission’s Final Rule Concerning Government and Business Impersonation. This rule, which came into effect last month, equips the agency with stronger tools to fight scammers who impersonate businesses or government agencies. It allows the FTC to directly file federal court cases aimed at forcing scammers to return money made from government or business impersonation scams and seek civil penalties for their conduct.
Secondly, staff from the Bureau of Competition will discuss the Commission’s Request for Information (RFI) for public comment on corporate consolidation through serial acquisitions and roll-up strategies. The RFI seeks information from the general public on serial acquisitions across all sectors and industries in the U.S. economy, particularly those acquisitions that do not require review by antitrust agencies, and their effects on competition, consumers, workers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
Lastly, representatives from the Division of Marketing Practices and the Office of Technology will present on the Voice Cloning Challenge winners and their ideas for protecting consumers from AI-enabled voice cloning harms such as fraud and broader misuse of biometric data and creative content.
At the beginning of the meeting, Chair Khan will offer brief remarks before inviting members of the public to share feedback on the Commission’s work generally and bring relevant matters to its attention. Members of the public wishing to address the Commission virtually at this event must sign up in advance.
Each commenter will be given two minutes to share their comments. Those unable to participate during this event may submit written comments or a link to a prerecorded video through a webform. Speaker registration and comment submission will be open until Tuesday, May 21, 2024 at 8 pm ET.
The event will be recorded and the webcast along with any related comments will be available on the Commission’s website after the meeting. The Commission retains discretion to make public comments available following the event on ftc.gov.
The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition, protect and educate consumers. The FTC does not demand money, make threats, instruct you to transfer money, or promise you a prize. More information about consumer topics and reporting scams, fraud, and bad business practices can be found online at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
