Federal Trade Commission 

Report to the 

White House Council 

on Women and Girls 

Fall 2009 
1

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION: 

REPORT TO THE WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL ON WOMEN AND GIRLS 

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) often refers to itself as a “small agency 

with a big mission.” Although the FTC currently has just over 1100 employees 

nationwide, its work reaches into virtually every corner of the marketplace. In recent 

years, the FTC has become best known as the government agency that launched the Do 

Not Call program and rescued the American family dinner hour from telemarketers. The 

FTC’s work, however, goes well beyond the dinner hour and affects the daily lives of all 

American consumers – men, women, and children alike – when they go to the doctor, 

take medicine, listen to commercials, buy food, try to lose weight, use credit, drive a car, 

clean a house, buy a refrigerator, or suffer the death of a loved one. 

 Established by Congress in 1914, the FTC is the nation’s oldest existing 

independent agency. It is also the nation’s foremost consumer protection agency, 

charged with protecting all Americans from unfair and deceptive acts and practices and 

unfair methods of competition. The FTC’s twin missions of consumer protection and 

competition serve a common aim – enhancing consumer welfare. Given the critical role 

women play in making purchasing decisions for their families, almost everything that the 

FTC does affects women’s lives. The FTC enhances consumer welfare through use of 

four primary tools: bringing law enforcement actions, issuing rules and guidance, 

conducting policy studies, and producing educational materials to empower consumers 

and encourage compliance among businesses.

The FTC strives to make its workplace hospitable to women and families. The 

agency’s workforce is 51 percent female, and women make up 49 percent of its 

professional attorney population, which is the single largest job category at the agency. 

Women have been appointed to prominent positions at the FTC. Eleven women have 

served as Commissioners, going back to the 1960s, and two of them have led the FTC as 

chairmen: Janet Steiger (1989-1995) and Deborah Majoras (2004-2008). Women also 

have served as directors of the agency’s three bureaus as well as its General Counsel. 

Section II of this Report describes various FTC programs that help employees – both 

women and men – juggle work and family life, such as those involving flexiwork and 

telework, work/life support, and employee wellness. The crown jewel of the FTC’s 

family-friendly programs is the FTC Child Care Center, which is celebrating its 20th

anniversary. 

By enhancing consumer welfare, the FTC’s mission touches and improves the 

lives of American women, children, and families in countless ways. Section III of this 
2

Report focuses on discrete FTC program areas that have a particular impact on women 

and that most closely reflect some of the stated goals of the White House Council on 

Women and Girls. The Report highlights five areas, describing, for each, recent FTC law 

enforcement actions or policy initiatives as well as available consumer and business 

education materials: 

1. Health Care for Women and Children. The Report summarizes FTC law 

enforcement actions against misleading or unfair marketing, or unfair methods of 

competition, involving women’s health services or products – hormone 

replacement therapy, breast biopsies, pregnancy tests, cervical cancer screening, 

oral contraceptives, and fraudulent weight-loss products. The Report also 

describes recent FTC actions to protect children’s health involving over-thecounter children’s pain medication and new drugs to treat congenital heart defects 

in newborns. 

 

2. Marketing to Children and Adolescents. The Report discusses FTC policy 

studies and law enforcement actions in the marketing of alcohol, cigarettes, and 

violent entertainment to kids. It also reviews the FTC’s work concerning food 

advertising to children; in particular, it describes the FTC’s recent initiative with 

industry, consumer advocates, and other federal agencies to foster effective selfregulatory initiatives to combat childhood obesity and under-age drinking. 

3. Consumer Credit. The Report highlights the FTC’s study of mortgage 

disclosures – how well all consumers, including women, understand existing 

requirements and whether improved disclosures could help consumers better 

understand mortgage costs, shop for mortgage loans, and avoid deceptive lending 

practices. Based on the study, the FTC has drafted a prototype mortgage form. 

The Report describes numerous FTC law enforcement actions to protect 

consumers from deceptive or unfair practices over the full life cycle of credit – 

from deceptive advertising of mortgages and credit cards to foreclosure rescue 

scams and phony credit repair schemes.

4. Entrepreneurship and Business Opportunities. The Report describes the 

FTC’s promotion of business opportunities for new entrepreneurs, noting that 

women are the fastest growing group of small business owners. The agency 

brings law enforcement actions against companies that make deceptive claims 

about work-at-home and other business opportunities. It also challenges 

professional codes – covering professions such as real estate brokers, medical 

professionals, and fashion designers – that unnecessarily restrict participation and 

thereby keep out businesses that offer cheaper prices or challenge the status quo. 

5. Family Pocketbook Issues. The Report summarizes FTC activities that affect 

women’s and families’ purchasing decisions for a range of goods and services, 

including energy, so-called “green” products, food and drugs, and funeral 

services. 
3

II. PROGRAMS THAT IMPROVE THE LIVES OF THE FEDERAL 

WORKFORCE 

 

For many years, the FTC has taken steps to improve the lives of employees and to 

make the workplace more family friendly. These efforts have received outside 

recognition. In 2007, and again in 2009, the FTC was named by the Partnership for 

Public Service as one of the ten top small federal agencies at which to work. This rating 

is based not only on the FTC’s inspiring pro-consumer mission and its rewarding work, 

but also on the wide array of programs offered to employees to improve their lives. Key 

workplace programs include: 

Childcare and Parental Support. Since 1989, the FTC has offered an on-site 

Day Care Center for pre-school aged children. The day care center provides critical and 

direct support for employees with young children, and also enriches the lives of all 

employees by “humanizing” the workplace and giving everyone the opportunity to see 

children learn and grow in a safe and caring environment. The agency supports expectant 

parents (both biological and adoptive) with one-on-one counseling about the benefits 

available to them and with information on how employees can most effectively use their 

leave to support their new families. The agency also provides lactation support to new 

mothers. 

Telework and Flexiwork. The agency provides a variety of work schedules and 

work place options to support its employees. Staff may work regular or compressed 

schedules, part time or full time, and they may work from home on an intermittent, 

recurring, or full-time basis through the agency’s recently revised Telework Policy. 

Currently, 30 percent of FTC employees are approved to telework, with several dozen 

employees working from home on a recurring basis for up to four days a week. 

Work/Life Support. The FTC receives high marks from its employees for its 

efforts to help them juggle work and family life. In the Federal Human Capital Survey 

for 2008, 86 percent of participating FTC employees responded positively to the 

statement: “My supervisor supports my need to balance work and other life issues.” 

The government-wide rating for that question that year was 75 percent. 

Since April 2006, the FTC has supported its active work/life program through a 

Certified Work/Life Specialist who serves as the Assistant Director for Employee 

Development, Benefits and Work/Life in the FTC’s Human Resources Management 

Office. Among the work/life programs that the agency has provided its employees are 

brown bag seminars on such topics as: 

 State College Savings and Pre-Paid Tuition Plans 

 Addressing Eldercare 

 The Challenges of the Sandwich Generation 

 Stress Reduction 
4

 Emotional Intelligence 

 Health Education 

To help employees deal with the challenges of the current economic situation, the 

agency has hosted a series of brown bag seminars on home ownership, home retention, 

and household budgeting, and has provided useful internet links to savings calculators 

and information on stress reduction. 

The FTC has long provided an Employee Assistance Program for its employees 

and since August 2008, the agency has contracted with LifeCare, a concierge service for 

its employees and their family members. Among other things, LifeCare provides free 

kits to employees on: 

 Prenatal and Infant Care 

 Child Safety 

 College 

 Eldercare 

Employees can obtain a wealth of practical work/life information and assistance 

through the Human Resources Management Office’s monthly newsletters, which recently 

featured articles or provided information on: 

 Financial Planning 

 Fitness 

 Mental Health 

 Self Esteem 

Since 2007, each October the agency has celebrated National Work and Family 

Month with such programs as: 

 Managing Work and Life 

 Strategies for Healthy Meal Planning 

 Wills, Trusts, and Estate Planning 

Employee Wellness. The FTC has had an employee wellness program since 

2005. The FTC Wellness Program supports midday walking expeditions, running clubs, 

on-site exercise and fitness classes, and locker rooms for employees. The agency 

provides storage facilities for employees who bike to work. It hosts an annual health fair 

to educate employees on health provider choices and provides a variety of health care 

services, including vision screening, glaucoma testing, allergy shots, annual flu shots, 

physicals, blood pressure monitoring, glucose testing, lipid profiling, and tuberculosis 

screening. The FTC also provides on-site medical screening services, including those for 

osteoporosis, heart disease (echocardiograms and electrocardiograms), stroke, and breast 

cancer (mammograms). The agency provides periodic job-related ergonomic 

assessments and offers CPR training. The agency also observes Older Americans Month, 
5

Physical Fitness Month, Cancer from the Sun Month, and other events providing relevant 

programs and information for employees. 

III. PROGRAMS THAT IMPROVE THE LIVES OF AMERICA’S WOMEN AND 

GIRLS 

The FTC undertakes numerous initiatives that improve the everyday lives of all 

American consumers, including women. Unlike most other independent agencies, the 

FTC’s mission is not confined to a single market sector. Instead, it focuses on acts and 

practices involved in the sale, marketing, and advertising of virtually every product and 

service in the United States – from health care and professional services; to credit and 

financial products; to food, drugs, and supermarkets; to energy and household products. 

In this section, we focus on FTC activities in five areas of the agency’s broad 

mission that promote many of the stated goals of the Council on Women and Girls and 

that also affect American families: (A) health care for women and children, (B) 

marketing to children and adolescents, (C) consumer credit, (D) entrepreneurship and 

business opportunities, and (E) general family pocketbook issues. A more complete 

picture of the FTC’s activities that benefit American women and families can be found on 

its website – www.ftc.gov – and is summarized in the FTC’s annual reports, available at 

www.ftc.gov/os/annualreports/index.shtm. 

A. Health Care for Women and Children. 

Health care is a critical issue for American families and of ever-growing 

importance in the American economy. Health care goods and services account for 17 

percent of the gross domestic product in the United States. Given the prominent position 

of health care in the national economy, the FTC devotes considerable resources to health 

care-related matters in an effort to lower health care costs and improve health care quality 

for American families. The agency investigates hospital mergers, acts to stop 

anticompetitive pay-for-delay agreements between branded and generic pharmaceutical 

companies, and stops other collusive arrangements that can raise costs for individual 

consumers, employer-providers of health insurance, and the federal government through 

Medicare and other federal programs. The agency also works to promote full and truthful 

disclosure in health care marketing and advertising and fights to stop fraud and deception. 

Many consumers fall victim to deceptive health care marketing because they are 

desperate for help – whether to lose weight or to treat serious diseases like cancer or 

diabetes. 

Highlighted here are recent FTC health care-related initiatives that focus 

specifically on women’s and children’s health. 

Hormone Replacement Therapy. The FTC works to stop misleading claims in 

the marketing of hormone replacement therapy alternatives to women. Some online 

marketers offering so-called natural progesterone products claim, without substantiation, 

that they prevent, treat, and even cure serious diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and 
6

osteoporosis. Working in conjunction with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 

(FDA), the FTC has sent warning letters to scores of online sellers making such claims, 

advising them that their marketing claims may be illegal. The FTC ultimately filed 

complaints against seven such sellers. www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/11/hormone.shtm; 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/10/hormonethrpy.shtm; www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/01/hrt.shtm. 

Breast Biopsies. The FTC recently unraveled a merger between the only two 

makers of prone stereotactic breast biopsy systems (SBBSs). Prone SBBSs are integrated 

systems that allow doctors to conduct highly precise, minimally invasive breast biopsies 

using X-ray guidance. This technology is a life-saving innovation that helps doctors 

detect breast cancer at a critical early stage of development. The FTC’s action revived 

competition by reestablishing a second company working to improve detection and 

screening technology in hopes that further breakthroughs will improve the accuracy, 

minimize the risk, and reduce the cost of diagnosing breast cancer. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/07/hologic.shtm. 

Pregnancy Tests. The FTC also stopped a leading medical diagnostic company 

from buying up new technology and interfering with the efforts of a smaller competitor to 

develop a new type of digital over-the-counter pregnancy test that would compete with 

existing products and offer women more choices. The FTC’s order, finalized in 2008, 

clears the way for the development of new and improved consumer pregnancy tests, sales 

of which total $125 million per year in the United States. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/12/inverness.shtm. 

Cervical Cancer Screening. In 2002, the FTC blocked a merger between the 

maker of the only DNA-based test for the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is 

believed to cause nearly all cervical cancer cases, and the leading U.S. maker of liquidbased Pap tests, which are the most widely-used, sensitive, primary screening tool to 

detect cervical cancer. The HPV test is ordered as a follow-up test when Pap test results 

are unclear, and uses the same patient sample. The FTC was concerned that the 

combined firm would have the ability and the incentive to raise the price or to refuse to 

supply its HPV test, creating a competitive disadvantage for smaller companies currently 

marketing a liquid Pap test, or hoping to develop a new Pap test that allows for HPV 

testing using the same patient sample. www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/06/cytyc_digene.shtm. 

Operation AFalse Cures@ Cancer Sweep. In 2008, the FTC announced actions 

charging 11 companies or individuals with making false or unsubstantiated claims that 

their products – including laetrile, black salve (a corrosive ointment), essiac tea and other 

herbal mixtures, coral calcium, and shark cartilage – cure or treat cancer. Some 

complaints also alleged that companies falsely touted clinical or scientific proof for their 

products. Six of the 11 actions have been resolved through settlements that bar future 

false or unsubstantiated claims and require notification to purchasers that little or no 

scientific evidence exists to demonstrate product effectiveness in treating or curing 

cancer. The letters to consumers urge consultation with their doctors about these 

products. Four of the settlements also required a monetary payment. The cancer cure 

cases originated with an Internet surf coordinated among the FTC, the FDA, and the 

Competition Bureau Canada. www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/09/boguscures.shtm. 
7

 

Fraudulent Weight-Loss Products. In a general survey on fraud in the United 

States, the FTC’s Bureau of Economics found that 30.2 million adults (13.5 percent of 

the adult population) were victims of fraud in 2005. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the 

national obsession with dieting, the top fraud involved weight-loss products, including 

dietary supplements, nonprescription drugs, skin patches, creams, wraps, and earrings, all 

of which were advertised to cause substantial weight loss without the need for dieting or 

exercise. The study estimated that 4.8 million American consumers fell prey to these 

fraudulent weight-loss promises in the year preceding the survey. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/10/fraud.pdf. In response, the FTC has brought numerous actions 

for deceptive weight loss claims. In one such case in 2008, a court imposed monetary 

judgments of more than $15.8 million and issued permanent injunctions against 

marketers of bogus dietary supplements, called Thermalean and Lipodreme. The court 

also held the companies’ medical expert liable for $15,454 for his deceptive endorsement 

of Thermalean. www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/01/nug.shtm. 

Oral Contraceptives, Children’s Pain Medication, and Other Drugs. The 

FTC is at the forefront of efforts to bring affordable medicines to market more quickly, 

particularly generic formulations of branded pharmaceuticals. One of the FTC’s highest 

priorities is to stop anticompetitive agreements in which branded pharmaceutical 

companies pay generic competitors to delay their entry into the market. The FTC’s 

economists have estimated that stopping these agreements could save consumers $3.5 

billion a year and also reap significant savings for the federal government, which pays 

approximately one-third of all prescription drug costs. The FTC has brought several 

cases against agreements that stalled generic competition for widely-used drugs, 

including oral contraceptives and children’s liquid ibuprofen, as well as against pay-fordelay settlement agreements that kept competition off the market for blockbuster drugs to 

treat sleep disorders (Provigil) and reduce the risk of blood clots (Plavix). Wide 

availability of generic drugs can save consumers as much as 90 percent. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/10/chilcott.shtm (oral contraceptives); 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/08/perrigoalpharma.shtm (children’s ibuprofen); 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/02/ceph.shtm (Provigil); 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/03/bmsplavix.shtm (Plavix). 

Heart Defects in Premature Babies. The FTC also has sued a company that 

acquired the rights to sell NeoProfen, a drug that treats a specific congenital heart defect 

usually found in severely underweight premature babies and affecting approximately 

30,000 infants each year. The FTC alleged that the company already produced a 

competing product, Indocin, and that the acquisition enabled it to raise the price of 

Indocin from $36 to $500 per vial, forcing desperate parents to pay artificially inflated 

prices to treat this potentially fatal condition. The FTC seeks divestiture of assets related 

to one of the two treatments and disgorgement of all unlawfully obtained profits. The 

trial is scheduled to begin in September 2009. www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/12/ovation.shtm. 

 

Consumer Education Initiatives. Complementing its law enforcement and 

policy making activities, the FTC educates consumers about health care issues with 
8

information in both English and Spanish. Consumer education material on health issues 

includes: 

Miracle Health Claims. To avoid becoming victims of health fraud, it is 

important for consumers to learn how to assess health claims and seek the advice 

of a health professional. The FTC, together with the FDA, has published a 

pamphlet for consumers, entitled 'Miracle' Health Claims: Add a Dose of 

Skepticism, which provides information about the efficacy and safety of dietary 

supplements and alternative remedies for conditions such as arthritis, cancer, and 

HIV/AIDS. It also offers helpful tips on spotting and avoiding health fraud. 

www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/health/hea07.shtm. 

Fake Cancer Cures. An FTC microsite helps consumers to be wary of fake 

cancer cures. www.ftc.gov/curious. 

Weight Loss Products and Programs. To help consumers evaluate weight loss 

products and services, and know which questions to ask, the FTC developed 

Weight Loss: Finding a Weight Loss Program that Works for You, a 12-page fullcolor booklet at www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/health/hea05.pdf. 

Health Care Resources for Seniors. Women increasingly are responsible for the 

health and care of aging parents and other relatives. The FTC has a publication 

and website that offer a directory of health care resources and services, primarily 

aimed at senior citizens and their caregivers. www.ftc.gov/WhoCares. 

B. Marketing to Children and Adolescents. 

Every parent knows about the influence of media and advertising on children and 

adolescents. According to the American Psychological Association, children under age 

eight take advertising messages literally, accepting them as truthful, accurate, and 

unbiased. www.apa.org/releases/childrenads.html. 

The FTC enforces the law with respect to advertising directed to children to 

ensure that it is truthful and non-deceptive. The agency also regularly examines the selfregulatory systems used by the motion picture, music recording, and video game 

industries to rate or label their products. In addition to determining whether the ratings 

and labels are prominently disclosed in advertising, the FTC assesses whether the 

industries are marketing their violent entertainment products in a manner inconsistent 

with their own parental advisories. Approximately every two years, the FTC issues a 

public report with its findings. Finally, the FTC enforces the Children’s Online Privacy 

Protection Act of 1998 to protect the safety and privacy of children online to ensure that 

websites do not ask children under the age of 13 for personal information without first 

obtaining parental consent.

Reports on Childhood Obesity and Food Marketing. Since 1980, childhood 

obesity rates have tripled among adolescents and doubled among younger children. 
9

While many factors contribute to childhood obesity, regardless of the causes, responsible 

marketing can play a positive role in improving children's diets and physical activity 

level. The FTC actively works with government agencies, consumer advocates, and 

industry to foster creative and effective self-regulatory initiatives to help combat 

childhood obesity. In 2006, the FTC issued a joint report with the U.S. Department of 

Health and Human Services that recommended self-regulatory actions for companies 

marketing food and beverages to children. In 2007, the agencies hosted a workshop to 

review progress in implementing self-regulatory and educational initiatives to combat 

childhood obesity. In 2008, the FTC issued a landmark report that documented industry 

expenditures, activities and self-regulation in marketing food to children and adolescents. 

The report was based on responses provided to FTC subpoenas issued to 44 major food, 

beverage, and fast-food companies and provides an important benchmark for measuring 

the future progress of self-regulatory initiatives. In addition to describing the state of 

food marketing to children and adolescents and analyzing industry initiatives to date, the 

report sets forth a number of recommendations. 

www.ftc.gov/os/2006/05/PerspectivesOnMarketingSelfRegulation&ChildhoodObesityFTCandHHSReportonJointWorkshop.pdf; 

www.ftc.gov/os/2008/07/P064504foodmktingreport.pdf. 

Children’s Weight-Loss Supplements. The FTC has sued companies making 

false and unsubstantiated claims for purported weight loss products aimed at children. In 

2006, the FTC sued the manufacturer of numerous diet products, including PediaLean, a 

dietary supplement advertised to help children lose weight. The manufacturer settled 

with the FTC, paying $3 million in restitution as well as agreeing to stop making 

unsubstantiated claims that PediaLean and other products cause weight loss. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/05/basicresearch.shtm. 

Misleading Cereal Advertising. The FTC vigilantly fights false, inflated, or 

misleading health or nutrition claims about food. Just this year, the FTC settled claims 

against the Kellogg Company, the world’s leading producer of cereal, for falsely 

advertising in a national campaign that a breakfast of Frosted Mini-Wheats was 

“clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20%.” According to 

Kellogg’s own study, only about half the children who ate Frosted Mini-Wheats for 

breakfast – as compared to children who had no breakfast at all – showed any 

improvement in attentiveness, and only about one in nine improved by 20 percent or 

more. The settlement bars future deceptive cognitive health claims for Kellogg’s 

breakfast and snack foods. www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/04/kellogg.shtm. 

Alcohol Marketing to Children. An FTC report released in 2008, SelfRegulation in the Alcohol Industry, examined industry efforts to reduce the likelihood 

that alcohol advertising targets minors. It also announced a new system for monitoring 

alcohol industry compliance with self-regulatory programs. The report explained where 

alcohol suppliers spend their promotional dollars, provided data on compliance with the 

industry's advertising placement standard, discussed the status of external review of 

advertising complaints, and provided information about the FTC's education program to 

reduce teen access to alcohol. www.ftc.gov/os/2008/06/080626alcoholreport.pdf. 
10

Cigarette Marketing. The FTC’s mandate extends to responsibility over the 

marketing and promotion of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, and new tobacco 

products. Over the past 40 years, the agency has prosecuted a variety of unfair and 

deceptive cigarette advertising practices such as falsified claims about tar and nicotine 

ratings for cigarettes. The FTC also publishes periodic reports on the advertising and 

promotion activities in the cigarette and smokeless tobacco industries. These reports 

provide information on sales and on various categories of advertising and marketing 

expenditures, including expenditures on advertisements directed to youth (or their 

parents) that are intended to reduce youth smoking. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/08/tobacco.shtm. 

Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children. Since 2000, the FTC has 

published reports exploring whether the movie, music recording, and computer and video 

game industries market and advertise products with violent content to youngsters. These 

reports conclude that although these industries generally comply with their own voluntary 

standards regarding the display of ratings and labels, their standards for advertising are 

limited and still permit the advertising of these violent entertainment products in many of 

the media most popular with children and teens. The most recent report offers 

suggestions for improvements by each of the industries, such as tightening existing 

guidelines on advertising placement, improving the visibility of rating information and 

parental advisory labels, and implementing and enforcing point-of-sale policies 

restricting the sale of explicit content entertainment. 

www.ftc.gov/reports/violence/070412MarketingViolentEChildren.pdf. 

Children=s Safety and Privacy Online. The FTC looks out for the privacy and 

safety of children. The FTC actively enforces the Children’s Online Privacy Protection 

Act of 1998 (COPPA), by bringing actions against operators of child-directed and general 

audience websites that fail to obtain parental consent before collecting, using, or 

disclosing personal information obtained from children under age 13. To date, the FTC 

has brought 14 actions and obtained $2.97 million in civil penalties. In the most recent 

COPPA case, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation paid a $1 million civil penalty to resolve 

allegations that it knowingly collected personal information from at least 30,000 

underage children, without first notifying parents or obtaining their consent. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/12/sonymusic.shtm. 

Consumer Education Initiatives. As in other areas, the FTC supports 

enforcement actions with consumer education initiatives that are published in both 

English and Spanish. Consumer education focused on marketing to children includes: 

Consumer Education for Kids. The FTC publishes materials to help parents 

and educators explain how our economic system works with an eye toward 

helping kids become savvier consumers. An interactive website teaches kids 

about competition and the work of the FTC through an experiential site set in a 

shopping mall. www.ftc.gov/YouAreHere. 

Advertising Literacy for Kids. Given the tremendous spending power that 

children have, the FTC is creating a campaign on advertising literacy to educate 
11

children aged 8-12, and the adults in their lives, to be more discerning consumers 

of information. The campaign – which will include a website and a curriculum 

guide – seeks to help kids use critical thinking skills to better understand 

advertising. 

 

Under-Age Drinking. Working in conjunction with the U.S. Department of the 

Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, as well as trade 

organizations and non-profits, the FTC has tools and information about reducing 

teen drinking and related harm. The basic message is “don’t serve teens – your 

own or anyone else’s. It’s unsafe, it’s illegal, and it’s irresponsible.” 

www.dontserveteens.gov. 

Tobacco Advertising. The FTC publishes guides for consumers about tobacco 

products, including Up in Smoke: The Truth about Tar and Nicotine Ratings – 

www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt069.shtm and Cigars: No Such 

Thing as a Safe Smoke – www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt071.shtm. 

Entertainment Ratings. The FTC provides a microsite for parents on 

entertainment ratings generally – 

www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/ratings/index.html – and publishes specific 

materials on video games, Video Games: Reading the Ratings on the Games 

People Play, www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt154.shtm. 

C. Consumer Credit. 

The FTC works to ensure that consumer credit is free from fraud and deception 

and to promote consumer understanding of credit terms and instruments – work that is 

critical for the times and particularly for American women. Although the FTC lacks 

jurisdiction over banks, it has jurisdiction and enforces the law with respect to consumer 

credit and financial arrangements made by non-depository institutions. Increasingly, 

women are taking on consumer debt and expressing concerns about its effect on their 

families. A poll taken in 2008 showed that 64 percent of all Americans were concerned 

about their debt, and that women were one-third more likely to worry about it than men. 

See Poll by Bankrite, Inc. at www.debtcollectionanswers.com/Debt-CollectionStatistics.html. That worry could be based, in part, on the fact that the credit card debt 

carried by female-headed households grew by over a third in just six years – from 2001 to 

2007. See Joint Economic Committee,

jec.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=a858654b-79ac-4cad820f-86b41807f657. Variable interest rates and other credit practices mean that femaleheaded households are diverting an increasing share of their incomes to servicing their 

credit card debt, putting a further strain on family finances. 

 Concern about women’s debt applies to home mortgages as well. Single female 

homebuyers increased from 14 percent in 1995 to 21 percent in 2005. Although the 

stability represented by homeownership can have a positive impact on women’s lives, 

burdensome mortgage debt does not. One study has shown that women 

disproportionately have taken out mortgages with higher interest rates. Women Are 
12

Prime Targets for Subprime Lending, Consumer Federation of America, December 

2006. www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/WomenPrimeTargetsPressRelease.pdf. Even worse, 

women are more likely than men to receive subprime mortgages – while women make up 

30 percent of all mortgage holders, they comprise 39 percent of subprime borrowers. Id. 

This disparity between men and women increases further when considering women of 

color. Controlling for income levels, African American and Latina women are two to 

five times more likely to receive subprime mortgages than white men. Id. 

Below we summarize some of the FTC’s policy and law enforcement initiatives 

involving consumer credit issues. The FTC has studied changes in consumer credit 

markets to inform both policy and lawmakers. The FTC’s law enforcement actions 

protect consumers by stopping and deterring abuses by lenders and others involved in the 

entire life cycle of consumer debt. 

Mortgage Disclosures. Women and all consumers need to understand the 

provisions of financial instruments, especially mortgages, which are the largest financial 

transactions that most American families make. Lenders must also present the terms of 

mortgages to consumers in accessible, understandable, and consistent ways. Economists 

in the FTC’s Bureau of Economics have studied how consumers search for mortgages, 

how well consumers understand mortgage cost disclosures and the terms of their own 

recently obtained loans, and whether improved mortgage disclosures can help consumers 

better understand mortgage costs, shop for mortgage loans, and avoid deceptive lending 

practices. The study found that current disclosures failed to convey key mortgage costs 

to many and that better disclosures significantly improved this deficiency. Based on the 

study, the FTC has drafted a prototype mortgage form that greatly improves consumers’ 

understanding of mortgage terms and allows them to comparison shop. 

www.ftc.gov/os/2007/06/P025505MortgageDisclosureReport.pdf. 

 

Deceptive Mortgage Practices. The FTC brings enforcement actions to protect 

American consumers against deceptive or unfair practices by mortgage brokers, lenders, 

and servicers. It has brought more than two dozen actions against companies in the 

mortgage lending industry, focusing in particular on the subprime market. The FTC’s 

actions have challenged deceptive or illegal marketing by lenders, brokers, or other 

advertisers of consumer credit. In mortgage advertising, for example, the FTC has 

brought actions against mortgage lenders and brokers for deceptive marketing of loan 

costs or other key loan terms, such as the existence of a prepayment penalty or a large 

balloon payment due at the end of the loan. In one recent case, Bear Stearns and its 

subsidiary agreed to pay $28 million to consumers to settle charges that they charged 

unauthorized fees, misrepresented the amounts consumers owed, and engaged in abusive 

collection practices. Many loans involved subprime mortgages. As part of the remedy, 

the companies agreed to implement a data integrity program to ensure the accuracy and 

completeness of future consumer loan information. www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/01/emc.shtm.

 Foreclosure Rescue Scams. With the increase in mortgage delinquencies and 

foreclosures, the FTC has intensified its efforts to protect consumers from mortgage 

foreclosure rescue scams. In the past year, the FTC has brought 11 cases targeting 
13

mortgage foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams and is actively engaged in 

ongoing, non-public investigations. The scammers falsely represent that they will stop 

foreclosure in all or nearly all instances, and, in some cases, that they will refund most or 

all of the fees where foreclosure cannot be stopped. To coordinate efforts with state and 

local enforcement agencies, the FTC has formed or joined task forces in seven cities with 

high foreclosure rates – Tampa, Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, and 

San Francisco. www.ftc.gov/os/testimony/P064814foreclosure.pdf. 

 Consumer Debt Collection. In February 2009, the FTC recommended that the 

debt collection regulatory system in the United States be reformed and modernized to 

reflect changes in consumer debt patterns, the debt collection industry, and technology. 

To follow up, the FTC has announced a series of regional roundtables, with participants 

from industry, academia, consumer groups, and state and federal government, to explore 

such policy issues as the role of consumer choice, perceptions of bias, codes and 

protocols, and transparency of results. www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/02/fdcpa.shtm. 

 Subprime Credit Card Abuses. The FTC also has increased its focus on the 

subprime credit card market that targets consumers with lower credit scores. In one 

action coordinated last year with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the 

settlement agreement required the company to reverse the fees charged to eligible 

accounts, thus providing consumers an estimated $114 million in credits and cash 

refunds. The complaint alleged that the company deceptively marketed the cards as 

credit cards, primarily through mail solicitations that misrepresented the amount of credit 

available and also failed to disclose critical information about the cost of that credit. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/12/compucredit.shtm.

Credit Repair Schemes. Another consumer protection challenge exacerbated by 

the economic downturn is the effect of delinquencies, bankruptcy, or other negative credit 

information on consumers’ credit reports. Fraudulent credit repair companies falsely 

claim they can remove – for a fee – negative but accurate information from credit reports. 

This false promise targets consumers with poor credit histories who are seeking a job, a 

car loan, or a mortgage. The FTC has acted aggressively against such scams and has 

brought 42 enforcement actions since 1999. In October 2008, the FTC and 24 state 

agencies announced a crackdown on 33 credit repair operations – entities that deceptively 

claimed they could remove negative information, even when the information was 

accurate and current. Partnerships with state authorities have increased significantly the 

reach of the FTC’s law enforcement efforts to promote broader compliance with the law. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/10/cleansweep.shtm. 

Deceptive Financing on Purchases. In 2008, the FTC stopped two companies 

from allegedly targeting low-income consumers with poor credit ratings for financing 

plans on personal family computers. The complaint charged that the companies made 

pitches on nationwide television and radio to consumers with “less than perfect credit, 

bad credit, no credit” to finance the purchase of a computer. The FTC alleged that many 

consumers ordered the computers, paid hundreds of dollars, and received nothing in 

return. The FTC charged the companies with violations of various statutes enforced by 
14

the FTC, including the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Truth in Lending Act, the 

Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and the FTC's Mail Order Rule. To settle these charges, 

the companies agreed to pay up to $5 million in restitution to the injured consumers. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/02/bluehippo.shtm. 

 Consumer Education Initiatives. Complementing its law enforcement and policy 

making activities, the FTC educates consumers to help them better understand financial 

transactions, instruments, and obligations; avoid fraud; and become aware of emerging 

scams. The FTC’s consumer education materials are available on www.ftc.gov in both 

English and Spanish. Highlights of the FTC’s consumer education initiatives on credit 

include: 

Money Matters. The FTC publishes a series of consumer education materials, 

entitled Money Matters, that offer short practical tips, videos, and links to reliable 

sources on a wide variety of topics from credit repair, debt collection, job-hunting 

and job scams to vehicle repossession, managing mortgage payments and avoiding 

foreclosure rescue scams. The FTC, along with the Department of the Treasury 

(MakingHome-Affordable.gov), the Department of Housing and Urban 

Development, and Fannie Mae, are working on an outreach campaign to help 

consumers avoid mortgage foreclosure fraud. www.ftc.gov/MoneyMatters. 

Foreclosure Rescue Scams. This summer, the FTC released Real People, Real 

Stories, a three-and-a-half minute video featuring people who were targeted by 

foreclosure rescue scammers and who share lessons they learned. The FTC is 

distributing English and Spanish language copies of this video to thousands of 

housing counseling and consumer protection organizations around the country. The 

video also is posted on the FTC’s website. 

www.ftc.gov/multimedia/video/credit/mortgage/hope-now.shtm. 

Consumer Credit Reports. An FTC microsite provides details about consumers’ 

rights to a free copy of their credit reports, at their request, once every 12 months. 

Reviewing credit reports regularly is an effective way to deter and detect identity 

theft. www.ftc.gov/freereports. 

Credit Cards and Credit Scores. An FTC microsite contains information and tips 

on shopping for credit cards, using cards carefully, and keeping credit records 

accurate. It explains credit scores, identity protection, and how to avoid credit 

repair scams. www.ftc.gov/gettingcredit. 

Read Up. Reach Out. The FTC’s bilingual resources for Spanish speakers include 

a 44-page guide – Read Up! How to be an Informed Consumer – that includes 

information on consumer rights, managing finances, making major purchases, 

avoiding scams and rip-offs, and being safe and secure online. Read Up and Reach 

Out: A Guide to Consumer Education and Outreach is a CD that offers tips for 

organizations on how to incorporate consumer information into existing outreach 

programs, enlist other organizations as partners in the fight against consumer fraud, 
15

and get free, practical information in Spanish and English from the FTC. 

www.ftc.gov/readup. 

D. Entrepreneurship and Business Opportunities. 

The FTC promotes greater business opportunities for new entrepreneurs, including 

women. According to the Small Business Administration, women are the fastest growing 

group of small business owners in the United States. 

www.sba.gov/ADVO/research/rs323tot.pdf. Between 1997 and 2004, the growth of 

women-owned firms increased nearly two and a half times more than U.S. privately held 

firms. Center for Women’s Business Research, available at 

www.sba.gov/ADVO/research/rs323tot.pdf. Through its consumer protection mission, 

the FTC helps ensure that claims and disclosures about business opportunities are free 

from fraud and deception. Through its competition mission, the FTC strives to keep 

markets open for new entrants and entrepreneurs, especially by advocating against 

unnecessary impediments, such as professional association rules, which prevent entry in 

the marketplace. When motivated by improper factors, unreasonable government 

restrictions can limit competition for the benefit of incumbents to the detriment of 

consumers. 

Highlighted here are some recent and ongoing FTC initiatives designed to keep 

business opportunities free from deceptive or misleading disclosures or anticompetitive 

restraints. 

Work-at-Home Scams. Work-at-home scams often target women who want to 

earn money from home. In one fraudulent envelope-stuffing scheme, for example, the 

promoter allegedly promised that in exchange for a deposit, he would provide all 

materials consumers needed to earn lucrative profits that were “guaranteed.” In return for 

sending in deposits, however, consumers received a home mailing sales pamphlet that 

told how to publish ads at consumers’ own expense to sell the same pamphlet. In another 

scheme, the fraudsters allegedly charged consumers to access a website with “moneymaking secrets” that fraudulently promised quick and easy money. The FTC charged 

proprietors behind both schemes with making false and unsubstantiated earnings claims 

in violation of the FTC Act. In these examples and others, the agency has won 

multimillion-dollar awards against these malefactors and stopped their deceptive work-athome ploys. www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/04/workathome.shtm; 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/08/mmsecret.shtm. 

 “Bizopp” Scams. Over the past several years, the FTC has worked to stop 

scammers who dupe consumers into investing their savings in bogus business 

opportunities, known as “bizopp scams.” The FTC has promulgated rules requiring a 

purveyor of a business opportunity to disclose its litigation history, a list of prior 

purchasers, and its refund and cancellation policy, and to substantiate any earnings 

claims. The FTC has filed actions against scams that have violated these requirements 

and harmed consumers by misleading them to believe that they would profit substantially 

from selling various products and services in a host of ventures. As job losses, 
16

foreclosures, and dwindling retirement accounts have forced increasingly more 

Americans to search for ways to make ends meet, the FTC has stepped up enforcement 

against these scams. Recent bizopp scams stopped by the FTC include schemes to sell 

overstocked merchandise, asset protection services, and office supplies. In July 2009, the 

FTC announced "Operation Short Change," a law enforcement crackdown on scammers 

trying to take advantage of the economic downturn to bilk vulnerable consumers through 

business opportunity scams and other fraudulent schemes. 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/07/worldtraders.shtm; 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/06/platte.shtm; www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/02/hotlink.shtm. 

Restrictive Professional Codes. Over the years, the FTC has been at the 

forefront of efforts to open up the professions by eliminating rules that unnecessarily 

restrict participation in certain licensed professions. Many of these codes kept out new 

businesses that offered lower prices and challenged the status quo. The FTC has 

challenged restrictive rules that harmed consumers by limiting market entry in the 

following professions: real estate brokers, fashion designers, arbitrators, music dealers, 

medical professionals, veterinarians, and accountants. 

Restrictions on Dental Hygienists. An example of the FTC’s work to 

prevent restrictive codes that can limit women’s professional opportunities is a 

2007 case involving dental hygienists. The FTC settled charges with the South 

Carolina State Board of Dentistry that the Board had unlawfully restrained 

competition by adopting a rule that required a dentist to examine every child 

before a dental hygienist could provide preventive care – such as cleanings – in 

schools. The FTC claimed that the Board’s rule led to fewer children receiving 

preventive dental care, affecting in particular economically disadvantaged 

children, who had little other opportunity to receive dental care. 

www2.ftc.gov/opa/2007/06/dentists.shtm. Given that dental hygienists are 97 

percent female (see www.bls.gov/cps/wlf-table11-2006.pdf), the rule also limited 

professional opportunities for women. 

Restrictive Real Estate Rules. In the past few years, the FTC has 

initiated over 20 actions against Multiple Listing Services (MLS) rules that 

prevent innovative low-cost brokers from entering the real estate business. The 

FTC’s efforts have forced changes to MLS rules in several areas that kept lessthan-full-service brokers from having access to MLS real estate listings, or to 

popular real estate websites where buyers view listings online. In addition, a joint 

FTC-Department of Justice study concluded that state legislators and industry 

regulators should consider repealing existing laws, rules, and regulations, such as 

minimum-service and anti-rebate provisions, that limit choice and reduce the 

ability of new brokerage models (e.g., fee-for-service brokers, discount fullservice brokers, virtual office web site brokers, and broker referral networks) to 

compete and that do not appear to provide any consumer benefit that would 

justify such restrictions. The FTC has engaged in extensive advocacy with state 

officials to prevent the proliferation of these anticompetitive regulations. 

www.ftc.gov/bc/realestate/cases/indexhtm; 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/05/realestate.shtm. 
17

Consumer and Business Education Initiatives. Consumer and business 

education complements the FTC’s enforcement and policy initiatives. All consumer 

education materials produced by the FTC are in both English and Spanish and available 

on the FTC website at www.ftc.gov: 

Tips on Avoiding Business Opportunity Rip-Offs. An FTC microsite offers 

practical information about some common business opportunity scams; how to 

spot, stop and avoid them; and how to file a complaint about any of them. On the 

microsite’s “Press Room,” would-be entrepreneurs can find information on the 

FTC's recent law enforcement actions against promoters of deceptive business 

opportunities. www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/bizopps/index.html. 

Fraud: An Inside Look. To help would-be entrepreneurs understand how easy 

it is to be conned – and how to avoid fraud – the FTC produced a video, featuring 

a convicted scammer who hawked phony business opportunities and ultimately 

served prison time for deceiving investors. 

www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/moneymatters/scam-watch.shtml. In the video, 

the scammer gives an insider account of how these operations use high-pressure 

tactics and celebrity endorsers to trick cash-strapped consumers, and how 

consumers can protect themselves by demanding written disclosures on earnings 

and other sales data. 

How-To Guides for Businesses on Advertising. The FTC publishes how-to 

guides for businesses on complying with the law when making advertising claims 

and distributes them at trade shows; in cooperation with bar associations, industry 

groups, and other government agencies; and through its website. The FTC also 

produces digital products – including interactive websites, CD-ROMs, and online 

tutorials – to educate advertisers. Monthly columns cater to small businesses and 

entrepreneurs; and FTC staff maintains a busy schedule of speeches and 

presentations to audiences of lawyers, advertisers, and businesspeople. FTC staff 

also makes presentations to media outlets to help ad intake staff recognize 

questionable claims in ads. 

Understanding and Complying with the Antitrust Laws. The FTC offers 

educational materials to help consumers and businesses better understand how 

they benefit from a robust marketplace and how the agency’s competition work 

supports those markets. The FTC’s Guide to the Antitrust Laws is an antitrust 

primer for businesspeople. www.ftc.gov/bc/antitrust/index.shtm. Such resources 

aid businesses seeking to comply with basic competition laws. Competition 

Counts: How Consumers Win When Businesses Compete is a plain language 

guide for consumers. www.ftc.gov/competitioncounts. 

Business Briefcase. The Business Briefcase is a business card-sized CD 

containing more than 60 of the agency’s most important compliance publications. 
18

E. Family Pocketbook Issues. 

The FTC’s work touches the purchasing decisions of families and households 

everyday. Both in the United States and globally, women make the majority of these 

decisions – they make about two-thirds of family purchasing decisions, and that number 

is expected to rise to approximately three-quarters in the next 20 years. 

www.marketwire.com/press-release/The-Boston-Consulting-Group-1025016.html. 

We highlight below some areas of FTC work that particularly affect family 

purchasing, including “green” product claims, energy labeling and marketing, and 

competition affecting supermarkets and drugstores, auto repairs, and funeral services. 

Green Marketing. Environmental marketing has increased dramatically as 

businesses tout the “green” attributes of their product services. The FTC maintains its 

Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims – colloquially known as Green 

Guides – to explain consumers’ understanding of commonly used environmental claims 

such as “recyclable” and “biodegradable,” and describe the basic elements needed to 

substantiate those claims. The FTC currently is reviewing its Green Guides, first issued 

in 1992, to ensure that they continue to be relevant to today’s marketplace and to 

determine whether they should address such new green claims as “eco-friendly,” “carbon 

neutral,” and “sustainable.” The FTC also has challenged advertisements that make false 

or unsubstantiated green claims. For example, in 2009, the FTC entered into a consent 

agreement with Kmart for allegedly claiming falsely that certain products were 

biodegradable. By promoting uniform understanding and accurate disclosure of green 

claims, the FTC ensures that competition based on green claims drives businesses to 

greater innovation, and benefits consumers by increasing the availability of the green 

products and services they desire. 

Appliance Labeling. Since 1987, the FTC’s Appliance Labeling Rule has helped 

families comparison shop for energy-efficient lighting, plumbing products, and 

household appliances – clothes washers, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, water 

heaters, window air conditioners, central air conditioners, furnaces, boilers, heat pumps, 

and pool heaters. The Rule requires manufacturers of most major home appliances to 

attach the ubiquitous yellow EnergyGuide labels, which estimate the product’s annual 

operating cost and energy use, as well as the highest and lowest operating costs of similar 

models. The FTC regularly reviews the Rule to keep it up to date with the changing 

nature of markets and technology. www.ftc.gov/appliances/. The FTC’s has brought 

similar proceedings to evaluate the labeling and marketing of light bulbs 

(www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/07/lightbulb.shtm), television and consumer electronics 

(www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/03/anpr.shtm); and home insulation products 

(www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/03/rvalue.shtm). 

 

Gas Saving Devices. The FTC filed two federal court actions against marketers 

of Amiracle@ devices advertised to dramatically increase gas mileage in ordinary cars. In 

each case, the FTC alleged that the claims for the device violate basic scientific 
19

principles. www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/02/dutchman.shtm; 

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/11/fuelsaver.shtm.

Car Repairs. The FTC recently blocked a merger that threatened to raise the cost 

of generating car repair estimates and total loss valuations for cars that have been 

severely damaged. The FTC filed suit in federal court to stop the proposed $1.4 billion 

merger of CCC Information Services Inc. and Mitchell International Inc., two of the three 

U.S. providers of “estimatics,” a software system used by auto insurers and repair shops 

to estimate costs of repairs, and total loss valuation systems, which are used to value 

passenger vehicles that have been totaled. After a nine-day evidentiary hearing, the court 

ruled for the FTC, and the parties abandoned the merger. 

www2.ftc.gov/opa/2009/03/cccmitchell.shtm. 

Supermarkets and Drugstores. For decades, the FTC has been reviewing 

mergers among supermarkets and drug stores to ensure that consumers benefit from 

competitive markets in the purchase of food, pharmaceuticals, and basic care products – 

purchases that make up a big part of the family budget. In just the last 15 years, the FTC 

has preserved competition among grocery stores in 145 communities throughout the 

United States and in Puerto Rico. For instance, the FTC recently required Whole Foods 

Markets to sell 32 Wild Oats stores in 17 cities to restore competition among premium 

natural and organic supermarkets. The FTC also has blocked several mergers between 

national drug store chains that would have raised prices and reduced product choices for 

consumers across the country. 

www.ftc.gov/bc/caselist/industry/cases/retail/RetailGrocery.pdf; 

www.ftc.gov/bc/caselist/industry/cases/healthcare/HealthCareRetail.pdf .

Newspaper Coupon Inserts. The FTC also is on the lookout for business 

conduct that restricts competition and impacts consumer wallets. In 2006, the FTC 

fended off an attempt by the two makers of newspaper inserts to stop competing and raise 

prices on popular coupon booklets distributed to nearly 50 million households every 

Sunday. One competitor allegedly hatched a scheme to allocate customers and fix prices, 

thereby ending an ongoing price war between the two companies; the price war was 

beneficial to those consumers who clip coupons as a way to save money. The FTC was 

able to stop the agreement before it took effect. www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/03/valassis.shtm.

Funeral Services. The third largest expense that many families encounter, after 

the cost of buying a house and a car, is paying for a funeral. For 25 years, the FTC has 

enforced the Funeral Rule to ensure that sellers of funeral goods and services do not take 

advantage of grieving families. The Rule requires sellers to make full disclosures of 

prices and rights to buy individual items instead of package arrangements, and it prohibits 

sellers from making false statements concerning legal requirements about embalming or 

burial containers. www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/funerals/funeralrule.shtm. The FTC 

also works to keep the market for funeral services competitive by preventing mergers that 

could increase prices and limit consumers’ choices. In 2006, for example, the FTC 

required the nation’s largest funeral home and cemeteries chains to divest individual 
20

homes and cemeteries in 47 markets across the nation – from Arizona to Michigan to 

Florida. www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/11/scialderwoods.shtm.

Consumer Education Initiatives. The FTC provides a wide range of consumer 

education materials, written in both English and Spanish, which are helpful to women 

and families in making purchasing decisions. The materials include tips on buying and 

assessing specific products. 

Energy Savings. An important pocketbook item for American families is the cost 

of energy. The FTC website offers tips to save homeowners money -- 

www.ftc.gov/EnergySavings -- and information on energy labeling for consumer 

products, retail sales of electricity, environmental marketing claims, insulation and 

home energy issues, and fuel and automotive products. www.ftc.gov/energy. 

Service Contracts. Service contracts are promises to perform (or pay for) certain 

repairs or services. Although they are sometimes called extended warranties, they 

are not warranties as defined by federal law. Service contracts may be arranged any 

time and always cost extra; warranties typically come with new cars and major 

appliances and the cost is included in the original price. Service Contracts

(www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/pro11.shtm) offers questions for 

consumers to ask to ensure they do not pay for more protection than needed. 

Gift Cards. There are two types of gift cards. Retail gift cards are sold by retailers 

and restaurants, and can be used only with those merchants. Retail gift cards may 

have expiration dates or a fee for inactivity that sometimes is called a “dormancy 

fee.” Bank gift cards generally carry the logo of a payment card network, such as 

VISA or MasterCard, and can be used at any location accepting cards from that 

network. There are more likely to be fees for activation, maintenance, or 

transactions on bank gift cards than on retail gift cards. Buying, Giving, and Using 

Gift Cards explains what consumers should look for when buying and using gift 

cards, especially the terms and conditions of their use. 

www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt010.shtm. 

Layaways. Layaway plans provide an alternative to paying cash or using credit. 

The retailer holds merchandise in reserve until the consumer pays for it in full. In 

recent years, Internet layaway sites have provided online shoppers with a similar 

option. Layaway: Another Way to Buy provides consumer with questions to ask 

about layaway plans and refund policies, and offers guidance on how to check out 

businesses offering plans. www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt173.shtm. 

 

Gas-Saving Products. When gas prices increase, so does the volume of 

advertising for "gas-saving" products. Consumers should be wary of any gassaving claims for automotive devices or oil and gas additives. Even for the few 

gas-saving products that have been found to work, the savings have been small. 

“Gas-Saving” Products: Fact or Fuelishness? offers practical steps to increase gas 

mileage. www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/autos/aut10.shtm.
21

Funerals. Each year, Americans spend billions of dollars arranging more than 2 

million funerals for family members and friends. The FTC’s education materials –

at www.ftc.gov/funerals – help consumers understand their rights and help 

businesses understand their legal obligations under the FTC’s Funeral Rule. 

IV. OVERARCHING RECOMMENDATIONS. 

The FTC intends to continue to implement programs that improve the lives of its 

federal employees and to strengthen initiatives within its consumer mission that improve 

the lives of American women and families. 

A. Workplace Improvements. While the FTC has sponsored various initiatives that 

make its federal government workplace hospitable for families and allow women’s 

careers to thrive, the agency will work toward further improvement. Specifically, the 

FTC will: 

 Evaluate carefully the results of the annual Office of Personnel Management 

Federal Human Capital Survey of FTC employees and implement program 

changes to ensure that the FTC remains an agency of choice. 

 Work to eliminate any vestiges of a glass ceiling by, for example, identifying any 

barriers to the advancement of women into Senior Executive Service positions. 

B. Program Improvements. The FTC’s mission on behalf of consumers is one that 

affects and improves the daily lives of women and families. The FTC will work to 

expand the reach and impact of its mission by:

 Leveraging its resources by increasing the number and variety of partnerships 

with state and federal agencies with complementary missions to improve the lives 

of women and all American consumers. 

 Increasing the number of consumer and business education materials, and finding 

new outlets and media. 

 Focusing its efforts on sectors of the economy with the greatest effect on 

women’s and families’ lives and pocketbooks, including consumer credit and 

finance, health care, energy, retail goods, technology, and real estate.