The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Restores Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits “Unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce.”
Section 5 of the FTC Act reinstates the agency’s commitment to using full legal authority against companies that use unfair policies to gain an advantage rather than competing on the merits.
Main Street Alliance applauds the Federal Trade Commission, and the leadership of Chair Lina Khan, as it restores section 5 of the FTC Act. On November 10, 2022, the FTC issued a statement announcing that the agency will restore the policy of rigorously enforcing the federal ban on unfair methods of competition. During the debates over the meaning of the word “unfair,” both the House and Senate expressed a common understanding that the unfair methods of competition encompassed conduct that tended to undermine “competitive conditions” in the marketplace. With this announcement, we hope that the FTC can help level the playing field for small business owners to compete against larger corporations, especially as technology continues to evolve and widen the gap between the large and small business' ability to grow.
Wetoga Felli, Main Street Alliance Research Analyst, stated, “When it comes to our work around anti-monopoly, Main Street Alliance focuses on tackling corporate concentration of power in the market and politics, which is detrimental to the growth and development of small businesses, in particular, Rural and BIPOC businesses. Therefore, this restoration of Section 5 means more rules and regulations that will allow true small business owners to start and grow their businesses and compete with Tech Giants who control the market and push consumers towards one particular brand or product.
Felli continues to share, “One of the federal policies on our radar going into 2023 is H.R. 3843: Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, which protects competition and promotes antitrust enforcement by adjusting premerger filing fees to increase antitrust enforcement resources. Another federal policy we are monitoring is S.2992: American Innovation and Choice Online Act, a bill that prohibits certain large online platforms from engaging in specified acts, including giving preference to their own products on the platform, unfairly limiting the availability on the platform of competing products from another business, or discriminating in the application of enforcement of the platform’s terms of service among similarly situated users.”
Main Street Alliance will continue to work closely with our coalition partners to monitor the impact of Section 5 and how it impacts small business owners going into 2023.
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