MSCI Calls For Appropriate FTC Action, Authority For Fraud, Scams

On July 12, the Metals Service Center Institute and other business trade associations sent a letter to U.S. Senate Commerce, Energy, and Transportation Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) that outlined support for giving the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the appropriate tools necessary to efficiently bring enforcement actions against frauds and scams, including collecting monetary relief for consumers harmed.

The letter noted the group opposes H.R. 2668, the Consumer Protection and Recovery Act.

The associations warned that H.R. 2668 “would allow the FTC to bypass its administrative process and quickly get before a court, but also would also expand the statute of limitations to as many as 10 years, would expand the scope of cases where monetary relief can be rewarded well beyond fraud, and would place no guardrails to determine when monetary relief is appropriate similar to the reasonable person standard in Section 19.” These provisions “would hard-wire monetary relief as the go to remedy for any alleged consumer protection violation or any antitrust violation,” the letter said.

Instead, the group of associations urged lawmakers to find a bipartisan solution that gives “the FTC the potential to pursue monetary relief but cannot support legislation without a reasonable statute of limitations, a differentiation between consumer protection and antitrust cases, and guidance as to when equitable relief is an appropriate remedy.”

Read the full letter here.