Maureen Ohlhausen, the acting chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, announced a series of reforms today aimed at streamlining and improving transparency in investigations undertaken by the agency.
Ohlhausen had previously tasked the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection to identify best practices with respect to its investigations. The Bureau announced today a series of five steps it is taking with respect to its Civil Investigative Demands, the most common tool known to the ARM industry when dealing with the FTC. Among the steps are:
- Providing plain language descriptions of the CID process and developing business education materials to help small businesses understand how to comply;
- Adding more detailed descriptions of the scope and purpose of investigations to give companies a better understanding of the information the agency seeks;
- Where appropriate, limiting the relevant time periods to minimize undue burden on companies;
- Where appropriate, significantly reducing the length and complexity of CID instructions for providing electronically stored data; and
- Where appropriate, increasing response times for CIDs (for example, often 21 days to 30 days for targets, and 14 days to 21 days for third parties) to improve the quality and timeliness of compliance by recipients.
The move is part of a broader initiative spearheaded by President Donald Trump, who tasked all federal agencies with streamlining the regulatory process, eliminating unnecessary rules and “wasteful processes.”
