US FTC Holds Its First Open Meeting of 2022: What Happened?

On January 20, 2022, the FTC continued its recent experiment in holding open meetings of its commissioners. The FTC did not vote on new initiatives; Chair Lina Khan is likely waiting for a third Democratic commissioner before pushing through her more controversial agenda. Public comments focused on two areas: possible anticompetitive conduct in the franchise industry against franchisees, including practices such as requiring franchisees to purchase products from the franchisor; and data privacy concerns related to children using payment apps that might not be subject to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), which the FTC enforces with civil penalties.

Read more in Mayer Brown’s Legal Update.