The FTC issued a press release earlier this week in which it stated that it is “moving aggressively to implement Presidential directives aimed at eliminating wasteful, unnecessary regulations and processes.”  The press release does not identify the directives but presumably they are contained in President Trump’s executive orders entitled “Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System” and “Presidential Executive Order on a Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch.”

The press release listed a series of initiatives that are already underway to implement the directives that include the following:

  • New groups within the FTC’s Bureau of Competition and Bureau of Consumer Protection are working to streamline demands for information in investigations to eliminate unnecessary costs to recipients of such demands.
  • Both Bureaus are reviewing their dockets and closing older investigations, where appropriate.
  • The entire FTC is working to identify unnecessary regulations that are no longer in the public interest.
  • The Bureaus of Consumer Protection and Economics are working together to integrate economic expertise earlier in FTC investigations to better inform agency decisions about the consumer welfare effects of enforcement actions