Senators Introduce Legislation to Restore FTC Authority to Return Billions to Consumers Ripped off by Scams, Fraud, Deception

Sens Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Rev Raphael Warnock (D-GA) introduced legislation to restore the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) decades-long authority to return money to consumers victimized by illegal scams, fraud and other unfair or deceptive practices. In April 2021, the Supreme Court slashed the FTC’s “Section 13(b)” authority which the commission utilized to return $11.2 billion dollars to consumers in the five years prior to the decision. The Consumer Protection Remedies Act of 2022 fully restores the FTC’s ability to obtain monetary and other relief for consumers under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act by going directly to federal court. The legislation protects consumers and fosters a fair marketplace by 1) allowing the FTC to go to court and ask the judge to order scammers and lawbreakers to return the money they unlawfully took from consumers and give up their ill-gotten gains so that it is not profitable to break the law; 2) Permitting the FTC to go to court to seek monetary remedies for consumers who were harmed because of anticompetitive conduct, in addition to unfair and deceptive or other unlawful conduct; and 3) confirming that the FTC may sue for injunctions and consumer redress for prior conduct, not just ongoing conduct, to stop lawbreakers from reverting back to their unlawful conduct. It also affirms 13(b)’s due process protections with impartial court-ordered redress 13(b) by 1) ensuring that the FTC must argue its case in front of a neutral federal judge, with the opportunity to appeal contested decisions through the federal judiciary; and 2) requiring that refunds or other relief be “in the public interest,” as determined by the judge.