Federal Trade Commission

Privacy isn’t black-and-white, says the FTC’s Chris Mufarrige, promising evidence-driven consumer protection cases under the Trump administration.

Keeping American kids safe in what FTC Commissioner Mark Meador calls “an increasingly complex and fast-paced technological environment” is a top priority for the agency.

The FTC probes Google and Amazon over transparency in their search businesses; Walmart will only allow authorized sellers; and Perplexity’s ad business garners criticism.

Whatever your take on the FTC’s oddly conditional green light for the Omnicom/IPG merger, one thing’s clear: The agency is being more active than expected.

Using pejorative labels, like “surveillance advertising,” does “nothing to help us understand the practice,” says Christopher Mufarrige, the newly appointed director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Monday was a busy day for antitrust attorneys in Washington, DC: It marked Day One of the the remedies phase of the Google search trial and the start of the second week of FTC v. Meta.

What’s in the tea leaves for the FTC’s new chair Andrew Ferguson, who took over in January? Kyle Kessler, a partner at Womble Bond Dickinson, weighs in.

Now that Chevron is overturned, it will be easier for companies to challenge FTC regulations in court, arguing that they exceed the FTC’s mandate, writes OpenX’s Julie Rooney.

Under the new leadership, the FTC is signaling a pivot away from sweeping rulemaking efforts to let Congress play that role, writes Uplevel CEO Raashee Gupta Erry.

But cookies aside – and don’t forget to leave a few real ones out for Santa – there were lots of other big privacy developments in 2024. Here are some of the highlights.