Federal Trade Commission 

Annual Performance Report for Fiscal Year 2022

and Annual Performance Plan for Fiscal Years 2023 to 2024

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Strategic Goal 1: Protect the Public from Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices in the Marketplace .

Strategic Goal 2: Protect the Public from Unfair Methods of Competition in the Marketplace 

and Promote Fair Competition. .

Strategic Goal 3: Advance the FTC’s Effectiveness and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 1

Introduction

About This Report 

The following document is the Annual Performance Report for fiscal year (FY) 2022 and the Annual 

Performance Plan for FY 2023 and 2024 for the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”). The 

report is structured around three strategic goals and their supporting objectives as established in the FTC 

Strategic Plan for FY 2022-2026. The FTC’s strategic goals, objectives, and performance metrics articulate 

what the agency intends to accomplish to meet its mandated mission (Goals 1 and 2), support and improve 

the management functions vital to core mission success (Goal 3) and demonstrate the highest standards of 

stewardship.

• Strategic Goal 1: Protect the public from unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the marketplace.

• Strategic Goal 2: Protect the public from unfair methods of competition in the marketplace and promote 

fair competition.

• Strategic Goal 3: Advance the FTC’s effectiveness and performance.

Go to ftc.gov to see more of the agency’s performance and budget documents

Agency and Mission Information

The FTC works to promote fair and open markets and protect the entire American public from unfair or 

deceptive business practices. While primarily a law enforcement agency, the FTC uses a variety of other tools 

to fulfill its mission, including rulemaking, research, studies on marketplace trends and legal developments, 

public outreach and engagement, and consumer and business education.

Our Mission

Protecting the public from deceptive or unfair business practices and from unfair methods of competition 

though law enforcement, advocacy, research, and education. 

Our Vision

A vibrant economy fueled by fair competition and an empowered, informed public.

Our History and Organization

The FTC is an independent agency that reports to the President and to Congress on its actions on behalf of the 

American public. These actions include:

• Pursuing vigorous and effective law enforcement;

• Advancing consumers’ interests by sharing expertise with Congress, state legislatures, and U.S. and 

international agencies;

• Developing policy and research tools through hearings, workshops, and conferences;

• Creating practical, plain language educational programs and materials for broad, diverse communities of 

consumers and businesses in a global marketplace with constantly changing technologies;

• Disseminating information about the Commission’s activities to the public to foster understanding, 

accountability, public participation, and transparency.

The FTC has a more than 100-year history of working to maintain a competitive marketplace for both 

consumers and honest businesses. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Trade Commission 

Act into law, creating the FTC. When the FTC was created, its purpose was to prevent unfair methods of 
2 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

competition in commerce as part of the battle to “bust the trusts.” Over the years, Congress passed additional 

laws giving the agency greater authority over anticompetitive practices.

Congress, in 1938, amended the FTC Act and granted the FTC authority to stop “unfair or deceptive acts or 

practices in or affecting commerce.” Since then, the FTC has been directed to enforce a wide variety of other 

consumer protection laws and regulations.

The FTC is headed by a five-member Commission nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, 

each serving a staggered seven-year term. The President chooses one commissioner to act as Chair. No more 

than three commissioners may be from the same political party.

The FTC’s mission is carried out by the Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP), the Bureau of Competition (BC), 

and the Bureau of Economics (BE). Their work is supported by the Office of the General Counsel, the Office 

of International Affairs, the Office of Policy Planning, the Office of the Secretary, the Office of the Executive 

Director, the Office of Congressional Relations, the Office of Public Affairs, the Office of Administrative Law 

Judges, the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Workplace Inclusion, the Office of the Inspector 

General, the Office of the Chief Privacy Officer, and eight regional offices across the country.

The FTC’s workforce is its greatest asset. At the end of FY 2022, the agency’s estimated full-time equivalent 

utilization was 1,119. The total new budget authority for FY 2022 was $376.5 million.

Scope of Responsibilities

The FTC is an independent law enforcement agency with consumer protection and competition jurisdiction 

in broad sectors of the economy. The agency administers a wide variety of laws, such as the Federal Trade 

Commission Act (FTC Act), Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Clayton Act. The Commission has enforcement 

or administrative responsibilities under more than 70 laws. The FTC also enforces many rules issued pursuant 

to the Federal Trade Commission Act or other laws, including the Business Opportunity Rule and the 

Telemarketing Sales Rule.

Performance Measurement Reporting Process

Bureau and office representatives serve as the Performance Measure Reporting Officials (PMRO), who act as 

data stewards for each of the agency’s publicly reported performance metrics. The PMROs report performance 

data to the Performance Improvement Officer on a quarterly or annual basis via an internal data reporting tool. 

The Financial Management Office (FMO) also leads periodic performance metric reviews in coordination with 

budget execution reviews. Quarterly reports are sent to senior managers throughout the agency, allowing for 

adjustments to agency strategies based on the interim results.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 3

Verification and Validation of Performance Data

The following outlines how the agency ensures the performance information it reports is complete, reliable, 

and accurate:

• The FTC has adopted a central internal repository for performance data entry, reporting, and review. The 

electronic data tool reduces human error, increases transparency, and facilitates review of the agency’s 

performance information.

• Each PMRO is responsible for updating the data quality appendix (DQA) at least once per year. The 

DQA serves as a process document, laying out data sources and collection methods for performance 

information, as well as how metrics are calculated.

• PMROs must provide all supporting documentation for their performance results at both the midpoint and 

end of the fiscal year. This allows FMO Performance Staff to “dig beneath the surface” and see the data 

underlying the metrics.

• After reviewing the underlying data, several metrics are selected each year to investigate more thoroughly, 

including interviewing the staff responsible for data collection, asking about alternative methods, and 

comparing data collection and calculations to those reported in the DQA.

Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 5

Strategic Goal 1: Protect the Public from Unfair or Deceptive Acts or 

Practices in the Marketplace

The FTC uses a multi-pronged interdisciplinary approach to protect the public from unfair and deceptive 

practices in the marketplace. The FTC conducts investigations, sues companies and people that violate the 

law, develops rules to protect the public, and educates consumers and businesses about their rights and 

responsibilities. The agency also collects reports about a host of consumer issues, including fraud, identity 

theft, financial matters, and Do Not Call violations. The FTC makes these reports available to law enforcement 

agencies worldwide.

Because the FTC has jurisdiction over a wide range of consumer protection issues, in order to carry out its 

broad mission it must make effective use of limited resources by targeting its law enforcement and education 

efforts to achieve maximum impact and by working closely with federal, state, international, and private 

sector partners in joint initiatives. In addition, the agency engages in dialogue with a variety of stakeholders to 

understand emerging issues. The FTC also conducts research on a variety of consumer protection topics.

The FTC focuses on investigating and litigating conduct that causes or is likely to cause substantial injury to the 

public. This includes not only monetary injury, but also, for example, unwarranted health, safety, and privacy 

risks. 

Through its Every Community Initiative, the FTC supports consumers in historically underserved communities, 

which may be disproportionately affected by fraud and other consumer issues. These efforts include 

developing specific resources, conducting outreach and events, initiating law enforcement actions, and 

conducting research to better identify and understand the equity issues.

Four objectives guide work in this area:

• Objective 1.1: Identify, investigate, take actions against, and deter unfair or deceptive acts or practices 

that harm the public

• Objective 1.2: Connect with individuals, communities, and businesses to provide practical knowledge, 

guidance, and tools, and to learn about key challenges and opportunities for future FTC engagement.

• Objective 1.3: Collaborate with domestic and international partners to enhance consumer protection.

• Objective 1.4: Support equity for historically underserved communities through the FTC’s consumer 

protection mission.
6 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Strategic Goal 1 Metrics FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

Objective 1.1

Metric 1.1.1 Amount of money returned to the 

public or forwarded to the U.S. Treasury resulting 

from FTC enforcement actions.

$2.79 

billion

$2.39 

billion

$2.28 

billion $65 million $65 million $65 million

Metric 1.1.2 Total consumer savings compared to 

the amount of FTC resources allocated to consumer 

protection law enforcement.

$14.80 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

$12.80 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

$11.60 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

$7.00 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

$7.00 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

$7.00 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

Metric 1.1.3 Percentage of matters following up 

on Commission market-wide policy initiatives, e.g., 

Notices of Penalty Offenses, Policy Statement on 

Negative Option Marketing, workshops, and reports.

N/A N/A 25.5% Baseline 20% 20

Metric 1.1.4 Percentage of matters seeking 

significant remedial, precedential, or deterrent 

effects across the marketplace.

N/A N/A 72.3% Baseline 65% 65%

Metric 1.1.5 Percentage of cases involving 

collaboration across organizational units, e.g., 

regional offices and divisions, BC and BCP, Bureaus 

and OPP.

N/A N/A 39.2% Baseline 35% 35

Metric 1.1.6 Percentage of the FTC’s consumer 

protection law enforcement actions that targeted 

the subject of consumer reports in the FTC’s 

Consumer Sentinel Network.

90.5% 85.2% 93.9% 80.0% 80.0% 80.0

Metric 1.1.7 User satisfaction with the FTC’s 

Consumer Response Center call center. 84 84 84

Average 

rate for 

government: 

72.8

Average 

rate for 

government

Average 

rate for 

government

Metric 1.1.8 User satisfaction with the FTC’s 

Consumer Response Center website. 82.5 83.3 81.2

Average 

rate for 

government: 

72.8

Average 

rate for 

government

Average 

rate for 

government

Objective 1.2

Metric 1.2.1 Rate of customer satisfaction with FTC 

consumer education websites.

(a) Mobile (b) Desktop

(b) 76.2 (b) 72.9 (a) 73.5

(b) 73.4

Average 

rate for 

government

(a) 72.6

(b) 72.8

Average 

rate for 

government

Average 

rate for 

government

Metric 1.2.2 Rate of customer satisfaction with the 

ftc.gov website. (a) Mobile (b) Desktop

(a) 74.6

(b) 74.7

(a) 73.5

(b) 70.9

(a) 70.5

(b) 69.1

(a) 73.5

(b) 70.9

(a) 70.70

(b) 69.26

(a) 70.87

(b) 69.44

Metric 1.2.3 Number of outreach events. N/A N/A 316 Baseline 300 300

Metric 1.2.4 Number of unique page views for 

consumer and business education digital article and 

blog posts.

N/A N/A 39.1

million Baseline 35 million 35 million
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 7

Strategic Goal 1 Metrics FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

Objective 1.3

Metric 1.3.1 Number of investigations or cases 

in which the FTC and other U.S. federal, state, 

and local government agencies shared evidence 

or information that contributed to FTC law 

enforcement actions or enhanced consumer 

protection.

551 505 541 375 375 375

Metric 1.3.2 Number of investigations or cases in 

which the FTC obtained foreign-based evidence or 

information or engaged in other mutual assistance 

that contributed to FTC law enforcement actions, or 

in which the FTC cooperated with foreign agencies 

and/or multilateral organizations on enforcement 

matters.

42 39 32 20 20 32

Objective 1.4

Metric 1.4.1 Percentage of actions taken to 

stop unfair or deceptive practices that we have 

identified as 1) targeting historically underserved 

communities; 2) disproportionately impacting 

historically underserved communities; 3) involving 

schemes or practices that research has shown to 

disproportionately impact historically underserved 

communities; or 4) involving conduct in languages 

other than English, including Native American 

languages.

N/A N/A 23.4% Baseline 20% 20%

Metric 1.4.2 Percentage of redress payments made 

to people who live in communities that have a high 

proportion of members of historically underserved 

communities.

N/A N/A 35.1% Baseline 30% 30

Metric 1.4.3 Number of outreach events targeting 

diverse audiences. N/A N/A 179 Baseline 165 165
8 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Objective 1.1: Identify, investigate, take actions against, and deter unfair or deceptive acts or practices that 

harm the public.

Goal Leaders: Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection; Director, Bureau of Economics

The FTC protects the public by enforcing Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts 

or practices in or affecting commerce, and by enforcing a number of statutes and rules proscribing specific 

unlawful practices. The FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, with the support of the Bureau of Economics, 

investigates cases and initiates civil enforcement actions, primarily by filing actions in federal court, when 

there is reason to believe that entities have violated these laws and rules. The FTC’s enforcement actions seek 

injunctions and other relief. The FTC also brings enforcement actions via administrative proceedings.

To fulfill its goal of protecting the public, the FTC must identify consumer protection issues and trends in 

the fast-changing, increasingly global marketplace. The agency strives to understand the issues affecting the 

public, including any newly emerging methods of fraud, so that it can target its enforcement, education, and 

advocacy on those areas where the public suffers the most harm. The FTC leverages its resources by sharing 

information with and encouraging other law enforcement authorities to assist it in its efforts, by acting either 

independently or jointly.

To help ensure that its enforcement, education, and advocacy efforts are well-targeted, the Bureau of 

Consumer Protection works with the Bureau of Economics in evaluating economic harm to consumers as cases 

and programs are developed.

The agency continues to collect consumer report information directly through the following sources:

• ReportFraud.ftc.gov for reporting fraud, scams, and bad business practices, or through a toll-free helpline 

(1-877-FTC- HELP)

• IdentityTheft.gov for reporting identity theft, or through an identity theft hotline (1-877-ID-THEFT)

• Donotcall.gov for reporting unwanted calls, or through the National Do Not Call Registry helpline (1-888-

382-1222)

In addition, the FTC continues to gather consumer report information from other sources, including state, 

federal, and international law enforcement agencies, Better Business Bureaus, postal mail, and private entities. 

The Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN) is the FTC’s secure website that provides more than 2,800 law 

enforcement users worldwide with access to more than 50 million consumer fraud, identity theft, financial, 

and Do Not Call Registry reports collected during the past five years. On a quarterly basis, the FTC includes 

information on the top consumer reports received on its data analysis site at ftc.gov/exploredata. Data about 

the FTC’s refund program is also available at ftc.gov/exploredata, including state-by-state and case-by-case 

breakdowns of the amount refunded to consumers. 

The FTC recognizes that consumers cannot always identify whether unfair or deceptive practices have 

occurred. For example, consumers cannot evaluate for themselves the truthfulness of an environmental 

marketing claim, such as “made with recycled content.” The agency, therefore, identifies targets by augmenting 

its complaint databases with other enforcement leads, such as ad monitoring, Internet “surfs” (monitoring the 

Internet for potentially false or deceptive advertising for a targeted product or service), evaluation of mobile 

practices, and direct referrals from government and private sector partners. 

Strategies 

• Identify consumer protection violations: Identify deceptive and unfair business practices that cause harm 

to the public, including practices that target or impact specific segments of the population, by monitoring 

practices in the marketplace and evaluating information from numerous sources, including reports 
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 9

submitted to the Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN) database by consumers and others. The FTC and its 

law enforcement partners mine the CSN database to identify trends and targets, as well as to develop 

cases against existing targets.

• Enforce consumer protection laws: Enforce the law to protect all segments of the population from 

fraud, deception, and unfair business practices by safeguarding consumer privacy, monitoring national 

advertising and new technologies, and suing entities that violate federal court and administrative orders 

obtained by the FTC. Negotiate consent orders and pursue litigated orders that have significant remedial, 

precedential, and deterrent effects. 

• Improve litigation skills: Improve staff negotiation and litigation skills and refine investigative and 

decisional tools through continuous learning.

External Factors and Risks 

• New Legislation

• New Congressional legislation could affect the agency’s ability to take law enforcement action.

• Budget and Staffing Levels

• A reduction in budget and/or staffing levels could reduce the agency’s ability to take law enforcement 

action.

• Increasing Litigation Costs

• Increasing costs related to litigation, including processing and storing increasingly large amounts of 

electronic investigation and case data, can lead to fewer investigations and cases.

• Legal Challenges 

• Legal challenges, such as the recent AMG Capital Mgmt., LLC v. FTC Supreme Court case, can reinterpret 

the FTC’s enforcement authority.

• In addition, a recent court ruling and ongoing lawsuits may affect the Commission’s ability to continue 

using its administrative process to obtain refunds for harmed consumers in consumer protection cases.

FY 2022 Progress Update

This fiscal year, the FTC continued to tackle a wide variety of unfair or deceptive practices in key areas, 

including national advertising, privacy and data security, financial and marketing practices, and practices 

targeting specific populations. From halting COVID fraud, to protecting workers and small businesses, to 

challenging practices that discriminate against communities of color, the FTC has been on the front lines of 

pressing issues consumers face. We have also made aggressive use of new authorities Congress has given us, 

including bringing our first case pursuant to the Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act, using the 

COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act to hold pandemic profiteers accountable with civil penalties, and bringing 

our first action under the Military Lending Act. In addition, the FTC continued its longstanding efforts to fight 

other unfair or deceptive practices, including combatting illegal robocalls and protecting consumers’ rights to 

repair their products. 

In response to the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG Capital Mgmt., LLC v. FTC, which held that the FTC does 

not have the ability to obtain monetary relief pursuant to Section 13(b) of the FTC Act, the FTC reinvigorated 

underused remedial powers, such as the FTC’s Penalty Offense authority, and pursued rulemakings, including 

finalizing the Made in the USA Rule, initiating an auto rule under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and 

Consumer Protection Act, initiating a rule to prohibit impersonation frauds, and initiating a rule to address 

deceptive and unfair earnings claims. While not a replacement for the FTC’s ability to return money to 
10 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

consumers under Section 13(b), these efforts have bolstered our ability to go after lawbreakers. Finally, the FTC 

aggressively enforced its orders against repeat offenders, referring cases to criminal authorities as appropriate.

In FY 2022, the FTC filed 33 complaints in federal district court and obtained 41 permanent injunctions and 

orders requiring defendants to pay more than $162.7 million in consumer redress or disgorgement of ill-gotten 

gains. Defendants also were required to pay over $102.7 million under one civil contempt order. In addition, 

cases referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) resulted in 11 court judgments imposing over $162.3 

million in civil penalties. Furthermore, the FTC issued 14 new administrative complaints and entered 12 final 

administrative orders requiring defendants to pay over $5.6 million. The FTC also reviewed compliance in over 

300 matters, including nearly 2000 defendants. 

The FTC’s trial win against On Point Global made $102 million in refunds available to consumers who were 

harmed by a wide-ranging scheme that led them to pay money or hand over personal information to fake 

government websites. The scammers ran hundreds of deceptive websites that promised a quick and easy 

government service, such as renewing a driver’s license, or eligibility determinations for public benefits like 

Section 8 housing or food stamps. The money being used to provide payments to consumers is a result of a 

contempt motion filed by the FTC against one of the defendants in the case, Burton Katz. Katz was previously 

sued by the FTC for placing millions of dollars in unwanted charges on consumers’ mobile phone bills by using 

spam text messages pitching “free” gift cards. As a result of that suit, Katz was placed under a court order 

prohibiting from any further violations of the FTC Act. Because of his involvement in this new fake government 

websites scam, the FTC filed the motion alleging that Katz and other defendants were in contempt of that 

order. The court ruled in the FTC’s favor on the motion and awarded the monetary relief. 

The FTC took action against Intuit Inc., the maker of the popular TurboTax tax filing software, for deceiving 

consumers with bogus advertisements pitching “free” tax filing. The Commission alleges that the company’s 

ubiquitous advertisements touting their supposedly “free” products, some of which consisted almost entirely 

of the word “free” spoken repeatedly, mislead consumers into believing that they can file their taxes for free 

with TurboTax when, in reality, the company’s “free” service is not available to millions of taxpayers. 

The FTC finalized a settlement with R360 LLC and its owner, Steven Doumar, resolving allegations that they 

deceived people seeking help for addiction regarding the evaluation and selection criteria for the treatment 

centers in their network. The case is the FTC’s first under the Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act 

of 2018. The FTC alleged that R360 misrepresented to consumers seeking help through its “R360 Network” 

that it would connect them with treatment centers that met their individualized needs and were selected 

through a rigorous evaluation process conducted by an expert in substance use disorders and addiction 

treatment. In reality, Doumar was responsible for assessing the quality of the treatment centers and deciding 

which would join the network, and he had no educational or professional experience that qualified him to 

make these decisions. The agency secured a $3.8 million civil penalty judgment against the defendants and an 

order prohibiting them from continuing to make misrepresentations. 

The FTC entered into a settlement with Twitter resolving allegations that it deceptively used account security 

data for targeted advertising. The FTC alleged that Twitter prompted users to provide their phone numbers 

and email addresses specifically for purposes of enabling two-factor authentication to protect their accounts 

and then profited by allowing advertisers to use this data to target specific users. The FTC alleged that Twitter’s 

deception violates a 2011 FTC order that explicitly prohibited the company from misrepresenting its privacy 

and security practices. The order requires Twitter to pay a $150 million penalty and bans them from profiting 

from its deceptively collected data. 

The FTC issued an administrative complaint against Denver-based HomeAdvisor Inc., a company affiliated 

with Angi, alleging it used a wide range of deceptive and misleading tactics in selling home improvement 

project leads to service providers, including small businesspeople operating in the “gig” economy. The FTC’s 
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 11

complaint against HomeAdvisor alleges that since at least the middle of 2014, it has made false, misleading, or 

unsubstantiated claims about the quality and source of the leads the company sells to service providers, such 

as general contractors and small lawn care businesses, who are in search of potential customers.

The FTC sued Walmart for allowing its money transfer services to be used by fraudsters, who fleeced 

consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the complaint, Walmart did not properly train 

its employees, failed to warn customers, and used procedures that allowed fraudsters to cash out at its stores. 

Based on information from fraud databases maintained by MoneyGram, Western Union, and Ria, more than 

$197 million in payments that were the subject of fraud complaints were sent or received at Walmart from 

2013 to 2018, with more than $1.3 billion in related payments also possibly connected to the fraud. The FTC is 

asking the court to order Walmart to return money to consumers and to impose civil penalties for Walmart’s 

violations of the Telemarketing Sales Rule. 

As in past years, the FTC focused on its greatest asset in protecting consumers—its staff. FTC staff has 

continued to work to identify, develop, and communicate best practices, updated procedures, and new 

litigation support tools, to maximize the efficiency of the FTC’s consumer protection work. BCP also continued 

to make law enforcement training a priority in FY 2022. BCP continued to expand the content on BCP Lit, its 

widely used internal training and information platform. BCP added new training materials, legal resources, and 

investigation and litigation advice to BCP Lit, as well as revised and updated existing training content. BCP also 

sent a number of staff attorneys to deposition trainings run by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). 

BCP approved training for investigators to become qualified as Certified Fraud Examiners. In addition, BCP’s 

Office of Technology Research and Investigation worked to keep BCP’s staff current and tech-savvy, providing 

training and seminars on topics such as microtask platforms and using a new advertising platform tool. BCP 

also continued to offer its mentoring program to staff. 

BCP faces resource challenges such as rising costs for expert witness contracts, travel (before pandemic-related 

restrictions were instituted and after they are lifted), and litigation support tools. Overcoming these challenges 

is critical as BCP litigates larger and more complex cases involving traditional frauds, as well as cases in 

emerging technologies, privacy and data security, and deceptive advertising in new media channels.

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective 

• Evaluate whether enforcement activities are tracking the areas where the public suffers the most harm 

and whether new practices or technologies require additional law enforcement focus, education, and 

advocacy.

• Evaluate economic and other harms to consumers as cases and programs are developed.

• Continue to evaluate the efficacy of promulgated rules and regulations and other policy documents.

• Evaluate and implement options for continuing to secure relief for consumers post-AMG Capital Mgmt., 

LLC v. FTC.
12 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Performance Metrics

Metric 1.1.1: Amount of money returned to the public or forwarded to the U.S. Treasury resulting from FTC 

enforcement actions.

This metric tracks the FTC’s effectiveness in returning money to consumers who were defrauded and 

forwarding money to the U.S. Treasury (e.g., if sending money to individuals is impracticable, or if funds were 

paid as a civil penalty). The FTC targets law enforcement efforts on violations that cause the greatest amount 

of consumer harm; the amount of money returned to consumers or forwarded to the U.S. Treasury is a useful 

indicator that the FTC is targeting the right defendants. The number reported is a three-year rolling average 

(average of the current year and two prior year totals).

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

$3.25 billion $3.52 billion $2.79 billion $2.39 billion $2.28 billion $65 million Exceeded $65 million $65 million

FY 2022 Highlights: In the last three years, the annual average of the total amount returned to consumers and 

forwarded to the U.S. Treasury is $2.28 billion. In FY 2022, the FTC returned $459.5 million to consumers and 

forwarded $177.2 million to the U.S. Treasury. The FTC returned money to more than 2.2 million consumers in 

dozens of cases, including Amazon Flex, AdvoCare, Next-Gen, MOBE, and LendingClub. The money returned to 

the U.S. Treasury included civil penalties obtained in settlements with Twitter, Inc., Walmart, Inc., and Kohls, 

Inc. In addition, in FY 2022, some FTC orders required defendants to self-administer refund programs worth 

more than $3.0 million in refunds to consumers, including the Agora Financial LLC case. The FTC expects the 

amount of money returned to consumers and the U.S. Treasury to continue to decrease due to the Supreme 

Court’s decision in AMG Capital Mgmt., LLC v. FTC, which held that the FTC does not have the ability to obtain 

monetary relief pursuant to Section 13(b) of the FTC Act.

Metric 1.1.2: Total consumer savings compared to the amount of FTC resources allocated to consumer 

protection law enforcement.

This metric tracks the efficiency of the FTC’s consumer protection law enforcement spending. We compare 

how much money the FTC saves consumers each year through law enforcement to the amount the FTC spends 

on consumer protection law enforcement. Consumer savings are comprised of: (a) the amount of money 

returned to consumers; and (b) an estimate of the amount of harm that would have occurred but for the FTC’s 

law enforcement action. To calculate this latter figure, the FTC assumes that the unlawful conduct would have 

continued for one year but for our action. The FTC also assumes that the amount of harm that would have 

occurred in that year is the same as what consumers lost in the past. The amount reported is a three-year 

rolling average (average of the current year and two prior year totals).

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

$39.50 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent.

$39.40 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent.

$14.80 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent.

$12.80 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent.

$11.60 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent.

$7.00 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent.

Exceeded

$7.00 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent.

$7.00 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent.

FY 2022 Highlights: The agency saved consumers on average over 11.6 times the amount of resources devoted 

to the consumer protection program in the past three years, or an average of $1.2 billion per year. Settlements 

obtained in the Benefytt Technologies, RagingBull.com, and Universal Guardian Acceptance cases comprised a 

significant portion of this amount. The FTC expects the average consumer savings to continue to decrease due 

to the Supreme Court’s decision in AMG Capital Mgmt., LLC v. FTC, which held that the FTC does not have the 

ability to obtain monetary relief pursuant to Section 13(b) of the FTC Act.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 13

Metric 1.1.3: Percentage of matters following up on Commission market-wide policy initiatives, e.g., Notices of 

Penalty Offenses, Policy Statement on Negative Option Marketing, workshops, and reports.

This metric tracks the FTC’s effectiveness in following up on Commission market-wide policy initiatives. This 

ensures we are understanding and responding to emerging trends in the marketplace, particularly problems 

that cause substantial consumer financial losses.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 25.5% Baseline N/A 20% 20

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, 12 of 47 enforcement matters followed up on Commission market-wide policy 

initiatives.

Metric 1.1.4: Percentage of matters seeking significant remedial, precedential, or deterrent effects across the 

marketplace.

This metric tracks the FTC’s effectiveness in negotiating consent orders and pursuing litigated orders that 

have a positive effect that goes beyond the individual defendant. Matters that seek significant remedial, 

precedential, and deterrent effects can have a larger impact on consumers.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 72.3% Baseline N/A 65% 65%

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, 34 of 47 enforcement matters sought significant remedial, precedential, or 

deterrent effects across the marketplace.

Metric 1.1.5: Percentage of cases involving collaboration across organizational units, e.g., regional offices and 

divisions, BC and BCP, Bureaus and OPP.

This metric tracks the FTC’s effectiveness in collaborating across organizational units. This interdisciplinary 

approach to protecting the public maximizes the agency’s ability to analyze and assess appropriate remedies.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 39.2% Baseline N/A 35% 35

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, 20 of 51 completed cases involved collaboration across organizational units.
14 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

85 84 84 84 84

Average 

government 

satisfaction 

rate in FY22: 

72.8

Exceeded

Average 

government 

satisfaction 

rate

Average 

government 

satisfaction 

rate

Metric 1.1.8: User satisfaction with the FTC Consumer Response Center website.

This metric quantifies how satisfied consumers are with the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, which is 

responsible for collecting consumer reports. Satisfaction is measured separately for consumers filing reports 

through online forms, and for those filing reports through the call center. The Consumer Response Center is 

often consumers’ first contact with the FTC, and if consumers do not have a satisfactory experience, they may 

be less likely to file reports. Consumer reports help the FTC to identify consumer protection issues and trends 

in the fast-changing, increasingly global marketplace. 

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

80.3 81.2 82.5 83.3 81.2

 Average 

government 

satisfaction 

rate in FY22: 

72.8

Exceeded

Average 

government 

satisfaction 

rate

Average 

government 

satisfaction 

rate

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

89.6% 87.8% 90.5% 85.2% 93.9% 80.0% Exceeded 80.0% 80.0

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, 31 of 33 of BCP’s law enforcement actions targeted the subject of consumer 

complaints to the FTC. Because BCP augments identification of targets from its databases with other strategies 

for generating enforcement leads—such as monitoring compliance with FTC orders, ad monitoring, internet 

surfs, mobile application surveys, and direct referrals from government and private-sector partners—the 

results vary from year to year.

Metric 1.1.7: User satisfaction with the FTC’s Consumer Response Center call center.

This metric quantifies how satisfied consumers are with the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, which is 

responsible for collecting consumer complaints. Satisfaction is measured separately for consumers filing 

complaints through online forms, and for those filing complaints through the call center. The Consumer 

Response Center is often consumers’ first contact with the FTC, and if consumers do not have a satisfactory 

experience, they may be less likely to file complaints. Consumer complaints help the FTC identify consumer 

protection issues and trends in the fast-changing, increasingly global marketplace. 

Metric 1.1.6: Percentage of the FTC’s consumer protection law enforcement actions that targeted the subject 

of consumer reports in the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network.

The FTC collects reports about a host of consumer issues, including fraud, identity theft, financial matters, and 

Do Not Call violations. Reports are an integral component when determining the areas of greatest concern 

and injury to consumers. This metric gauges how well the FTC’s consumer protection law enforcement actions 

target the subject of consumer reports.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 15

Secondary Metric 1.1.9: Number of reports collected and entered into the Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN) 

database.

The agency assimilates a large number of consumer complaints, including complaints about Do Not Call 

violations. The agency receives these complaints from a variety of sources, including direct consumer 

complaints to the FTC and complaints received by the FTC’s partners. In this manner, the FTC will collect robust 

information to inform its law enforcement efforts.

FY 2018 Actual FY 2019 Actual FY 2020 Actual FY 2021 Actual FY 2022 Actual

8.7 million 8.5 million 8.3 million 11.0 million 8.0 million

Secondary Metric 1.1.10: The percentage of redress cases in which money designated for distribution is mailed 

to consumers within 6 months.

This secondary metric ensures that the FTC returns redress dollars to injured consumers as quickly as possible. 

Money is considered “designated for distribution” when the FTC is in receipt of all funds, legal issues are 

resolved, and a usable claimant list is ready. If there is a claims process in which consumers must apply for a 

refund, then dollars are “designated for distribution” after all claims have been reviewed and verified.

FY 2018 Actual FY 2019 Actual FY 2020 Actual FY 2021 Actual FY 2022 Actual

90.9% 91.7% 93.1% 100% 85.2
16 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Objective 1.2: Connect with individuals, communities, and businesses to provide practical knowledge, 

guidance, and tools, and to learn about key challenges and opportunities for future FTC engagement.

Goal Leaders: Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection; Director, Bureau of Economics; Director, Office of 

Public Affairs

Consumer and business education serves as an important and vital resource in fighting against deception and 

unfair practices. Well-informed consumers are better able to recognize, avoid, and report fraud, and wellinformed business owners know where the FTC draws the line. 

Most FTC law enforcement initiatives include a consumer and/or business education component aimed at 

preventing consumer injury and unlawful business practices and mitigating financial losses. The agency also 

conducts consumer and business education campaigns to raise awareness of new or emerging marketplace 

issues that have the potential to cause harm. 

The FTC has a unique mandate to undertake certain forms of research based on Section 6 of the FTC Act. 

Under this authority, the FTC gathers, analyzes, and makes public certain information that serves the public 

interest. The FTC also convenes conferences and workshops through which experts and other experienced and 

knowledgeable parties identify emerging consumer protection issues and discuss ways to address those issues. 

The FTC recognizes that stakeholders outside the government have also been tasked with addressing certain 

consumer protection issues. The agency, therefore, carefully monitors self-regulatory efforts and partners with 

the private sector to disseminate consumer education content developed by the agency.

Strategies 

• Improve education and engagement efforts: Focus consumer and business education efforts on areas 

where deception, unfair practices, and information gaps cause the greatest injury. Determine this by 

understanding with qualitative and quantitative approaches what harms are most impacting consumers. 

Target groups with messages about marketplace issues that impact their health, safety, and economic 

well-being in channels, formats, and methods people are most engaged in depending on the topic. Adopt 

and employ usability testing, user research, and other human-centered strategies to ensure that FTC staff 

understands user needs and can help appropriately. 

• Use consumer insights to share critical information with internal FTC members including leadership, 

case, and legal teams: Through engaging with consumers and communities and employing different 

consumer feedback mechanisms, including soliciting public comments at open Commission meetings, 

analyze and aggregate critical findings to disseminate information learned directly from consumers to FTC 

employees. 

• Engage with local community and grassroots organizations: Build a strategy to engage with and make 

connections with consumers. Maintain strong relationships with community-based organizations and 

advocacy organizations nationwide, while continuously seeking new ways to build relationships with 

trusted community leaders (e.g., church leaders, teachers, community organizers, non-profit leaders, 

etc.). Follow up with all organizations to understand what materials were helpful or not and why and build 

relationships to maximize the agency’s public consumer outreach.

• Help victims of identity theft: Educate the public about identity theft and provide user-friendly, actionable 

information to those who have become victims of identity theft. 

• Promote reporting, online resources, and avenues to better engage directly with the public and gather 

public feedback: Publicize the FTC’s “Report Fraud” and identity theft websites and toll-free numbers in 

an ongoing effort to increase public awareness and inform the public of ways to contact the FTC to obtain 

information or file a fraud report.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 17

• Engage with and educate small businesses: Understand and listen to small business needs by employing 

user feedback and engagement opportunities. Provide small businesses with practical, user-friendly 

educational resources to help them understand the law so they can comply with it and identify when they 

are victims of unlawful conduct. 

• Reach out to workers: Provide workers and those looking for work, including those in historically 

underserved communities, with practical, user-friendly educational resources and information to help 

them identify and report consumer protection violations in the marketplace. 

• Study emerging consumer protection issues: Identify emerging consumer protection issues relating to 

the marketplace and technological developments, hold workshops or conferences to examine and solve/

improve those issues, and, whenever possible, publish findings or create ways to link the learnings to 

action to help prevent consumer harm. 

• Work with the media: Engage the media as part of a strategic communications program to disseminate 

usable, helpful, clear, and compelling content to the public at large with the goal of ensuring consumers 

understand what companies did wrong and what the FTC is doing to stop them. Identify and make 

maximum use of upcoming media opportunities, maintain strong relationships with Washington-based, 

regional and trade reporters, while continuously seeking new outlets and reporters to maximize the 

agency’s media outreach. Work to make staff available for interviews with print, digital, and broadcast 

outlets as well as nontraditional outlets such as podcasters and bloggers. 

• Use different communication channels that consumers frequent including trusted leader distribution, 

digital communications, social media, or physical forms of information dissemination: Continuously 

assess where users most digest information from trusted sources to determine their messaging reach and 

effectiveness, and then add them to the OPA communications toolbox if appropriate. Use these platforms 

to reach members of the media and those marginalized members of the public who may not receive FTC 

press releases, blog posts, and other information through traditional sources such as email. Continuously 

monitor the user experience and performance of FTC information distribution and success including FTC.

gov and make improvements to enable visitors to complete their tasks.

External Factors and Risks 

• Budget and staff limitations

• Budget limitations affect the FTC’s ability to increase both staff and contract support, increase 

dissemination of information and maximize its reach through web services. 

• Rising costs for supplies and shipping affect the FTC’s ability to maintain the present level of 

distribution of print materials and affect its ability to meet increasing demand as the agency expands 

its reach to a broader audience. 

• Rising costs of communications platforms that are compliant with the agency and government’s 

cybersecurity requirements, affect the FTC’s ability to disseminate and evaluate its online 

communications.

FY 2022 Progress Update

• COVID-19: Consumer and Business Education began its response to the pandemic by developing a 

multi-media campaign and a dedicated website to alert people about scams associated with the COVID19 pandemic (ftc.gov/coronavirus and ftc.gov/coronavirus/scams). Since then, American Rescue Plan 

funds have bolstered and expanded the FTC’s outreach efforts, especially to historically underserved 

communities targeted by COVID-19 scams and issues. After actively engaging with ethnic and community 

media journalists nationwide to learn about issues affecting these communities, the agency placed 

multilingual anti-fraud messaging into targeted print and radio markets in 11 languages. This messaging 
18 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

reached Asian-American, Black, Latino, and Tribal communities on topics related to the pandemic. As 

the effects of the pandemic have continued, the agency is increasing its outreach on issues related to 

financial resiliency. This includes advice and resources to learn – and teach others – how to tackle financial 

issues resulting from or worsened by the pandemic. Further, recognizing the impact of the pandemic on 

small businesses, the FTC continues to work with the Small Business Administration (SBA), Small Business 

Development Corporations (SBDCs), and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) nationwide to help business 

owners in all communities protect their businesses, livelihood, and employees from pandemic-related 

scams and economic hardship.

• Outreach to Specific Consumer Audiences: The FTC creates tailored messages and materials for diverse 

audiences and collaborates with partner organizations and agencies to disseminate FTC information 

to their constituents in those target communities. For example, the FTC’s Pass It On campaign (ftc

gov/PassItOn and ftc.gov/Pasalo in Spanish), tailored to people aged 65 and older, is a research-based 

campaign that shares information about fraud and encourages readers to share the information with a 

friend. The agency is seeking to expand upon the successful campaign by adding topics and refreshing its 

approach as part of its Stop Senior Scams Act activities. The agency continues to promote these resources 

through webinars and presentations in collaboration with other federal agencies such as the Consumer 

Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), local government offices on aging, legal services providers, non-profit 

organizations such as AARP, and at the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Global Summit. 

• Outreach to Military Service Members: The FTC has developed and manages the Military Consumer 

campaign together with the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Office of Financial Readiness and the 

CFPB, with nearly 50 other military, federal, and state partners. The campaign addresses unique challenges 

of military life that often make military personnel and families targets for scammers. Service members 

and their families, along with the DoD’s personal financial managers who serve them, use the campaign 

website (MilitaryConsumer.gov) as a tool for financial readiness. Two highlights of the campaign (Military 

Consumer Month in July and Veterans Day in November) feature extensive social media outreach and 

virtual events with the network of military partners. Since the launch of the campaign in 2017, the 

Commission has distributed nearly 1.2 million Military Consumer bookmarks to the military community. 

• Protecting Small Businesses: The FTC continues its focus on educating small business owners about small 

business financing, data security, and scams and deceptive practices targeting small businesses. Getting 

information and guidance to small businesses in communities of color is a priority for the agency. Business 

education materials are available in Spanish and outreach efforts are ongoing to reach minority-owned 

businesses, as well as women-owned businesses, veteran-owned businesses, and others. BCP staff has 

collaborated with the SBA, SBDCs, and the Center for Women & Enterprise to offer a webinar in Spanish 

for small business owners about cybersecurity and scams; staff regularly reaches out to chambers of 

commerce that represent ethnic business communities to do outreach; and staff have established 

relationships with the SBA to reach small business owners with advice on scams that target them, and 

have created free FTC resources small business owners can use to train their employees on cybersecurity 

basics. The agency also continues to focus on expanding the reach of its Spanish language campaign 

materials on cybersecurity and the scams that target small businesses, in collaboration with SBDCs, the 

SBA, and the BBB.

• Office of Public Affairs:

• Successfully launched the new FTC.gov and consumer and business education websites that make it 

easier for the public to accomplish their tasks, such as reporting fraud and getting a free credit report 

and finding the information they seek to prevent harm and comply with the law. 

• Created and launched the new FTC.gov Legal Library to make it easier for the public to search and 

access case information and legal, policy, and guidance documents within a single resource portal. 
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 19

• Successfully launched and managed Listening Forums and monthly Open Meetings, a first-ever 

initiative at the direction of the Chair’s office, including real-time virtual engagement with public.

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective 

• Review the focus and performance of FTC education efforts; determine whether the agency needs to 

reach new audiences on new topics or in new languages, in light of changes in demographics, emerging 

digital advertising issues, deceptive marketing practices, and emerging technologies; identify strategies or 

partnerships that will allow the FTC to reach those audiences; engage in user testing and human-centered 

testing, as appropriate; and apply learnings from analytics to improve education efforts and products.

• Review the focus and performance of FTC education efforts in reaching historically underserved 

communities, as described more fully in Objective 1.4.

• Research and apply analytics data, customer satisfaction feedback, and website standards and best 

practices to continue improving the user experience, performance, and features of the FTC.gov websites. 

• Expand the agency’s capacity to target and engage Spanish-speaking media and thereby reach the growing 

Spanish-speaking population.

Performance Metrics

Metric 1.2.1: Rate of consumer satisfaction with FTC consumer education websites. 

(a) Mobile

(b) Desktop

Consumer and business education serves as an important and vital resource in fighting against deception and 

unfair practices. Well-informed consumers are better able to recognize and report fraud, and well-informed 

business owners know where the FTC draws the line. This metric gauges the effectiveness, helpfulness, and 

usability of the FTC’s consumer education website and includes the customer satisfaction scores for 

consumer.ftc.gov

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

(b) 76.5 (b) 77.7 (b) 76.2 (b) 72.9 (a) 73.5 

(b) 73.4

Average 

government 

satisfaction 

rate in FY22 

(a) 72.6 

(b) 72.8

(a)Exceeded 

(b)Exceeded

Average 

government 

satisfaction 

rate

Average 

government 

satisfaction 

rate
20 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Metric 1.2.2: Rate of customer satisfaction with the ftc.gov website. 

(a) Mobile

(b) Desktop

This metric gathers site visitor feedback to determine the effectiveness of the FTC.gov website in enabling 

visitors to successfully complete their tasks and find the information they seek. Customer satisfaction is 

determined in a variety of functional areas and is benchmarked against other federal websites. The data 

enables the FTC to identify strengths and weaknesses in site components such as navigation, look and feel, 

search, content, etc., analyze the weaknesses, and take action to mitigate or prevent issues that hamper 

customer task completion and negatively impact satisfaction.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

(b) 75 (b) 76.7 (a) 74.6 

(b) 74.7

(a) 73.5 

(b) 70.9

(a) 70.5 

(b) 69.1

(a) 73.5

(b) 70.9

(a) Not Met 

(b) Not Met 

(a) 70.70

(b) 69.26

(a) 70.87

(b) 69.44

FY 2022 Highlights: The new FTC.gov websites launched with improved navigation, an updated and more 

secure platform, a new Legal Library, and a more modern look and feel. Although not unexpected, customer 

satisfaction numbers declined after launch due to repeat visitors’ initial frustration in finding that content had 

been relocated or removed. However, numbers were higher among first-time visitors of the site who reported 

that the look and feel and site information were satisfactory. Repeat visitors’ satisfaction rates are also 

increasing as the OPA Web and Digital Strategy team continues to improve site navigation and performance.

Metric 1.2.3: Number of outreach events.

The FTC conducts outreach events to provide practical knowledge, guidance, and tools, and to learn about key 

challenges and opportunities for future FTC engagement.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 316 Baseline N/A 300 300

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, the FTC participated in over 300 outreach events that reached thousands of 

community leaders and advocates, business owners, librarians, and others in communities across the nation. 

These events were both in-person and virtual and many focused on traditionally underserved communities. 

For example, the FTC spoke at a panel to discuss latest initiatives to protect servicemembers, veterans, and 

families, distributed print materials on cybersecurity at an event targeted to African American business 

owners, and shared advice on scams that target Latinos and how to avoid and report them, among others.

Metric 1.2.4: Number of unique page views for consumer and business education digital articles and blog 

posts.

This metric gauges the reach of the agency’s education messages for consumers and businesses via the web. 

Included in the count are the number of page views of FTC consumer education articles, blog posts, and other 

materials, as well as the page views of FTC business education plain-language guidance articles and blog posts.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 39.1 million Baseline N/A 35 million 35 millio
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 21

Secondary Metric 1.2.5: Number of consumer protection reports the FTC issued.

FTC staff prepare reports regarding current important topics in consumer protection, and these reports are 

the basis for this secondary metric. Consumer protection reports provide information to decisionmakers, both 

internally and externally, to help them understand important contemporary issues. This metric also ensures 

that the FTC releases a variety of informative reports to the public that help promote the understanding and 

awareness of consumer protection issues.

FY 2018 Actual FY 2019 Actual FY 2020 Actual FY 2021 Actual FY 2022 Actual

18 11 23 13 12
22 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Objective 1.3: Collaborate with domestic and international partners to enhance consumer protection.

Goal Leaders: Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection; Director, Office of International Affairs

Geographic location and other demographics may affect the types of deceptive and unfair conduct that 

consumers encounter. It is, therefore, important for governmental and non-governmental organizations to 

share information and resources to enhance consumer protection. The FTC works with partners in the United 

States and internationally to address consumer protection challenges, including new and emerging ones.

The FTC promotes consumer protection domestically by partnering with federal and state law enforcement in 

lawsuits that challenge and stop unlawful practices and seek redress for victims. It also promotes consumer 

protection through advocacy by filing comments with federal, state, and local government bodies and amicus 

briefs with the courts.

Because telemarketing and internet fraud, privacy violations, and data security breaches are increasingly crossborder in scope, the FTC routinely cooperates and collaborates with its foreign counterparts to implement 

broad-based international programs that combine cross-border law enforcement, policy, and technical 

assistance work.

Strategies

• Collaborate on law enforcement at home and abroad: Build strong bilateral relations with foreign and 

domestic counterparts, share information, engage in investigative assistance, and otherwise develop 

and strengthen enforcement cooperation on investigations, cases, and enforcement-related projects. 

Cooperate and collaborate with our foreign counterparts on cross-border law enforcement initiatives and 

policy development consistent with U.S. and global best practices.

• Provide international technical assistance: Provide technical assistance to countries that are establishing 

consumer protection regimes. Provide selected foreign officials with an opportunity to work alongside 

FTC attorneys, economists, and investigators to enhance their capacity to develop and implement sound 

consumer protection policy and enforcement.

External Factors and Risks

• Budget limitations

• Budget limitations could lead to fewer investigations and cases, which could decrease the amount of 

information sharing with domestic and international partners. 

• Limited control over state, local, federal, and international agency and private entity cooperation

• Hurdles to information sharing can stifle enforcement efforts.

• Providing international technical assistance would be hampered if external resources are not available, 

U.S. embassies abroad are not supportive, or foreign governments are not willing to accept U.S. 

assistance and advice.

• The FTC uses its U.S. SAFE WEB Act authority to expand its international enforcement efforts and 

continues its outreach efforts to foreign governments to increase cooperation. With the Act due to 

sunset in 2027, it may be difficult for the agency to enter new, long-term cooperation arrangements 

without having the information sharing and investigative assistance authority provided by the Act as 

part of its permanent authority.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 23

• Impact of COVID-19

• Due to continuing COVID-19 concerns about in-person gatherings, some foreign counterparts may not 

have the resources to cooperate with the FTC or may operate only virtually or with reduced goals or 

priorities that do not align fully with those of the FTC.

• The International Fellows Program may be hampered if travel restrictions due to COVID-19 resume 

and/or continue.

FY 2022 Progress Update 

• Domestic Collaboration: In the enforcement area, the FTC worked closely with its federal, state, and 

local partners on numerous investigations. The agency’s collaborative domestic efforts included its case 

against Harris Jewelry, brought with a group of 18 states, in which the defendants allegedly deceptively 

claimed that financing jewelry purchases through Harris would raise servicemembers’ credit scores, 

misrepresented that its protection plans for things like ring and watch sizing and battery replacement 

were not optional or were required, and added protection plans to purchase without consumers’ consent. 

Under a proposed order with the FTC and multistate group, the company must stop collection of millions 

of dollars in debt, provide approximately $10.9 million in refunds for purchased protection plans, provide 

refunds for overpayments, and assist with the deletion of any negative credit entries pertaining to debt in 

consumers’ credit reporting file. Additional collaborative cases include the case against B4B for allegedly 

falsely representing that its Earth Tea is clinically proven to treat, cure, and prevent COVID-19, which the 

FTC brought with DOJ and U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and its auto lending case against Napleton, 

which the FTC brought with the State of Illinois and resulted in a record-setting $10 million settlement. 

The FTC and Utah Department of Commerce Division of Consumer Protection also reached a $12 million 

settlement with the operators of Zurixx, a massive real estate investment coaching scheme, and the FTC 

and Florida Office of the Attorney General reached a partially suspended settlement of $5.3 million with 

GDP Network, the operators of an alleged credit card interest rate reduction scam.

The FTC also expanded its criminal referral program as part of its work to stop and deter corporate crime. 

While the FTC’s authority is limited to civil enforcement, the policy statement adopted in early FY 2022 will 

enhance the agency’s efforts to combat the criminal misconduct the FTC uncovers in consumer protection 

and antitrust investigations. The new measures outlined in the policy statement will ensure that cases 

are promptly referred to local, state, federal, and international criminal law enforcement agencies so that 

corporations and their executives are held accountable for criminal behavior. 

• International Collaboration: Strong cross-border cooperation plays a key role in effective law enforcement. 

Despite continuing challenges due to COVID-19, in FY 2022, the FTC’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) 

assisted with numerous consumer protection investigations, litigations, and enforcement-related projects. 

OIA also continued to develop strong bilateral relationships with foreign consumer, privacy, and law 

enforcement authorities around the globe and represented the agency in international organizations and 

enforcement networks on a range of complex global consumer policy and enforcement issues, including 

online frauds, digital advertising, and privacy and data security. 

The FTC continues to cooperate with a range of foreign agencies and multilateral organizations on 

enforcement-related investigations, cases, and projects. In 2020, Congress reauthorized the U.S. SAFE 

WEB Act, which supports FTC information sharing and investigative assistance with the agency’s foreign 

counterparts. The FTC also continued its active participation in the International Consumer Protection 

and Enforcement Network (ICPEN). In particular, the FTC supports econsumer.gov, a multilingual, ICPEN 

complaint collection, information sharing, and consumer education project. During FY 2022 the agency 

worked with foreign counterparts to add a series of consumer education alerts and added Portuguese 
24 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

as the site’s ninth language. The FTC also continued its leading role in the Global Privacy Enforcement 

Network (GPEN).

To complement its international enforcement work, the FTC provided input to international policy 

organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United 

Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and 

the Global Privacy Assembly, dealing with such issues as dark commercial patterns, artificial intelligence, 

and international data transfers. The FTC similarly participated in regional networks, such as the Asia 

Pacific Privacy Authorities Forum, the African Consumer Protection Dialogue, and the Iberoamerican 

network of consumer authorities (FIAGC). Chair Khan and the European Commissioner for Justice and 

Consumers, Didier Reynders, announced in March 2022 an agenda for cooperation on consumer issues, 

and the FTC participated in a G7 project for national authorities to engage in dialogues on various cutting 

edge privacy topics, leading an initiative to rethink agency remedies.

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective 

• Continue to work with other U.S. government agencies as appropriate to address global issues of mutual 

concern, including by engaging with agencies that are developing legislation on consumer and privacy 

issues, by participating in the negotiation of consumer protection provisions of trade agreements, and to 

develop mechanisms for transatlantic data flows consistent with strong privacy protections.

• Develop new initiatives with foreign counterparts on consumer fraud and other unlawful conduct, finding 

new ways of working with foreign counterparts due to continued concerns about in-person gatherings.

• Work with international partners to strengthen cooperation among enforcement partners, bilaterally and 

through multilateral organizations such as the ICPEN, UCENet, and GAEN (Global Anti-Fraud Enforcement 

Network). Encourage coordinated enforcement actions that protect U.S. consumers. Enhanced 

cooperation may include new and expanded initiatives with foreign criminal authorities and private 

sector partners, particularly in countries that are increasingly the source of fraud directed at American 

consumers. 

• Restart the International Fellows program and pursue technical assistance in appropriate regions, in 

cooperation with USAID and otherwise, taking into consideration opportunities to enhance enforcement 

cooperation to protect American consumers.

• Continue to highlight the importance of strong enforcement as a key component of consumer protection, 

including on privacy and data security and messaging abuses such as robocalls and spam, within the 

OECD, APEC (including the Digital Commerce Steering Group), the Global Privacy Assembly (formerly the 

International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners), and other multilateral policy 

organizations.

• Work closely through GPEN and directly with foreign data protection authorities to provide enforcement 

assistance, which, in appropriate cases, could include information sharing and investigative assistance 

pursuant to the U.S. SAFE WEB Act.

• Engage in enforcement cooperation pursuant to the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) and work to 

expand membership in the CBPR system.

• Seek permanent reauthorization of the U.S. SAFE WEB Act, which provides the FTC with critical tools for 

cross-border enforcement and cooperation. On October 20, 2020, the Act was reauthorized with a sevenyear sunset provision, expiring in 2027.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 25

• Further develop empirical evidence internationally on effects of new technologies and business models on 

consumer behavior, including work on measuring the effects of consumer protection, such as measuring 

harm from consumer fraud and consumer law violations.

• Engage with the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Consumer Protection at the UNCTAD to develop 

and implement best practices under the revised 2015 UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection and develop 

new opportunities for capacity building and technical cooperation with developing agencies.

Performance Metrics

Metric 1.3.1: Number of investigations or cases in which the FTC and other U.S. federal, state, and local 

government agencies shared evidence or information that contributed to FTC law enforcement actions or 

enhanced consumer protection.

This metric tracks the amount of information sharing by the FTC and other domestic law enforcement agencies 

to further the goal of protecting consumers from fraud. The geographic location and other demographics may 

affect the types of fraud that consumers encounter, making it important for government agencies to share 

information and resources to enhance consumer protection.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

369 453 551 505 541 375 Exceeded 375 375

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, BCP shared information with other U.S. federal, state, and local government 

agencies in 368 investigations or cases. In FY 2022, BCP received information from other U.S. federal, state, and 

local government agencies in 173 investigations or cases.

Metric 1.3.2: Number of investigations or cases in which the FTC obtained foreign-based evidence or 

information or engaged in other mutual assistance that contributed to FTC law enforcement actions or in 

which the FTC cooperated with foreign agencies and/or multilateral organizations on enforcement matters.

The FTC’s Office of International Affairs works to expand cooperation and coordination between the FTC and 

international consumer protection partners through information sharing, investigative assistance, and the 

development of investigative best practices and enforcement capacity. This metric counts the number of 

investigations and cases in which the FTC and foreign consumer protection agencies shared information or 

engaged in other enforcement cooperation, such as sharing consumer complaints, obtaining corporate records, 

and providing other investigative information.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

43 48 42 39 32 20 Exceeded 20 32

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, the FTC cooperated in 32 instances on consumer protection and privacy 

matters to obtain or share evidence or engage in other enforcement cooperation in investigations, cases, and 

enforcement related projects.
26 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Objective 1.4: Support equity for historically underserved communities through the FTC’s consumer 

protection mission.

Goal Leaders: Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection; Director, Bureau of Economics

The FTC is committed to protecting the public, including meaningfully addressing barriers that historically 

underserved communities face in participating in and benefiting from a fair and thriving marketplace. Research 

shows that certain practices may harm some consumers more than others, and companies employing 

emerging technologies may engage in deceptive or unfair practices that are especially harmful to historically 

underserved communities.

The FTC’s Every Community Initiative uses research and collaboration to ensure that the FTC is responsive 

to the needs of historically underserved communities. Historically underserved communities include Black 

Americans, Latinos, Indigenous/Native American peoples, Asian American/Pacific Islanders or other persons of 

color, members of religious minorities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer persons, persons with 

disabilities, persons who live in rural areas, and persons adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality. 

The Every Community Initiative also works to address consumer protection issues facing older adults as well as 

servicemembers, veterans, and their families, including during the transition to civilian life.

Strategies 

• Evaluate and bring action against conduct that harms historically underserved communities: Evaluate 

the impact of deceptive or unfair practices in the use of emerging technologies, such as algorithmic bias, 

on historically underserved communities. Ensure that enforcement addresses deceptive or unfair practices 

conducted in languages other than English, including Native American languages. Bring enforcement 

actions to stop identified conduct.

• Engage with and reach out to historically underserved communities: Provide historically underserved 

communities with practical, language-appropriate, and user-friendly educational resources and 

information to help them understand how the FTC is protecting them and to identify and report market 

power abuses and consumer protection violations in the marketplace. Reach new audiences, including 

those who have not traditionally sought information directly from the FTC, through established outreach 

strategies, new technologies, and private and public partnerships.

External Factors and Risks 

• Resource Constraints

• Budget limitations affect the FTC’s ability to increase staff, including bilingual staff, enforcement actions, 

and outreach

• Budget limitations affect the FTC’s ability to increase contract support for translation services.

FY 2022 Progress Update

The FTC is committed to serving historically underserved communities through vigorous law enforcement 

actions, meaningful community engagement and dialogue, and the pursuit of insightful research.

• Serving Communities of Color Report: Recognizing that deceptive or unfair practices may target and 

affect people from different communities in unique ways, in October 2021, the Commission issued the 

Serving Communities of Color staff report providing updates on its efforts to serve communities of color 

through aggressive law enforcement, outreach, education, and research on reporting rates of different 

consumer issues to inform the FTC’s work. The report provided an update on the FTC’s progress in the past 

five years, including bringing more than 25 enforcement actions in which the Commission could identify 

that the conduct targeted or disproportionately impacted communities of color. The report also detailed 
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 27

outreach efforts to reach communities of color by listening to and working with trusted sources in those 

communities to deliver consumer protection messages in an effective way.

• Enforcement Actions Impacting Historically Underserved Communities: Since October, the FTC has filed 

eight actions in which the Commission has identified that the conduct targeted or disproportionately 

impacted historically underserved communities. For example, the FTC and the Illinois Attorney General 

charged the Ed Napleton Automotive Group with tacking illegal junk fees for unwanted “add-ons” onto 

customers’ loans and discriminating against Black consumers by charging them more for financing. In the 

largest fair lending case in FTC history, Napleton paid a record-setting $10 million to settle the case and 

is required to implement a fair lending program. In May, the FTC took action against Financial Education 

Services and its owners for scamming consumers out of more than $213 million in a sprawling bogus credit 

repair scheme. The FTC’s complaint alleges that the company preys on consumers with low credit scores 

by luring them in with the false promise of an easy fix and then recruiting them to join a pyramid scheme 

selling the same worthless credit repair services to others. The company targeted English and Spanishspeaking consumers. Litigation in this matter is ongoing. 

• Outreach to Historically Underserved Audiences: The FTC continues its commitment to reaching 

historically underserved audiences, including through a series of ethnic and community briefings and 

roundtables. Recent virtual briefings have connected ethnic and community media with FTC experts 

on how fraud impacts communities of color; on scams and bad business practices in auto buying; and 

on job and money-making scams that plague historically underserved audiences. Geographically based 

roundtables have connected the FTC with local law enforcement, legal services, community advocates, 

and ethnic media. Audiences reached include rural and Tribal communities in Alaska, Colorado, 

Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming; the Hmong, Latino, Black, and immigrant 

communities in Minneapolis; and Chinese, Korean, Latino, Black, South Asian, and immigrant communities 

in Chicago. The result has been numerous, in-language articles and radio spots in local and ethnic media, 

reaching not only those targeted communities via a source they trust, but also carrying the messages into 

less-reached rural communities, sharing practical and actionable advice, and encouraging reporting to the 

FTC.

• Hearing from Historically Underserved Audiences: The FTC continues its commitment to hear from 

historically underserved audiences about the consumer problems they face. The FTC provides information 

and takes reports in English and Spanish on its reporting websites reportfraud.ftc.gov/ reportefraude.

ftc.gov and identitytheft.gov/robodeidentidad.gov, and through its call center. The agency’s Community 

Advocate Center works with providers of free and low-cost legal services to formally provide reports to the 

FTC from the communities they serve.

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective 

• Evaluate whether enforcement activities are addressing practices that target or disproportionately impact 

historically underserved communities, and whether these areas require additional law enforcement focus. 

This includes development of a strategy to ensure that enforcement actions address deceptive or unfair 

practices conducted in languages other than English. 

• Review the focus and performance of FTC education efforts to reach historically underserved communities; 

determine whether the agency needs to reach new audiences on new topics, in light of changes in 

demographics, emerging digital advertising issues and deceptive marketing practices, and emerging 

technologies; identify strategies or partnerships that will allow the FTC to reach those audiences; engage 

in user testing and human-centered testing, as appropriate, and apply learnings from analytics to improve 

education efforts and products.

• Continue to refine data collection and analysis for new metrics.
28 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

• Implement the agency’s Equity Action Plan, which includes developing a toolkit to aid staff in evaluating 

the impact of deceptive or unfair practices in the use of emerging technologies (e.g., algorithmic bias and 

the gig economy) on underserved communities.

Performance Metrics

Metric 1.4.1: Percentage of actions taken to stop unfair or deceptive practices that we have identified as 1) 

targeting historically underserved communities; 2) disproportionately impacting historically underserved 

communities; 3) involving schemes or practices that research has shown to disproportionately impact 

historically underserved communities; or 4) involving conduct in languages other than English, including Native 

American languages.

The FTC’s core mission is to protect all consumers from unfair and deceptive practices in the marketplace. 

Fraud as well as certain other business practices, have a disproportionately negative impact on communities of 

color, as well as other historically underserved communities. This metric seeks to gauge the impact of FTC law 

enforcement actions on historically underserved communities. 

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 23.4% Baseline N/A 20% 20%

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, 23.4 percent of BCP’s enforcement actions involved conduct that had an impact 

on historically underserved communities. For example, some of these cases involved allegedly discriminatory 

car financing terms, deceptive credit repair offers, and fraudulent pandemic-relief grants.

Metric 1.4.2: Percentage of redress payments made to people who live in communities that have a high 

proportion of members of historically underserved communities. 

The FTC works to halt illegal conduct harming historically underserved communities. FTC actions may result in 

redress payments to those harmed by the defendants’ actions. This metric seeks to gauge the impact of those 

FTC law enforcement actions that result in redress payments by measuring the degree to which people in 

historically underserved communities receive payments.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 35.1% Baseline N/A 30% 30

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, 35.1 percent of redress payments were made to people who are likely to be 

members of historically underserved communities. Within the 35.1 percent, 18.5 percent of the payments 

went to people who are likely to be Black Americans, 12.7 percent to people who are likely to be Latino 

Americans, 3.1 percent to people who are likely to be Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and 0.8 percent to 

people who are likely to be Indigenous/Native American persons. FTC redress programs that had a notable 

impact on historically underserved communities include Amazon Flex, AMG Services, Tate’s Auto, Fashion 

Nova, Student Debt Doctor, and Teami. In FY22, these redress programs resulted in more than $97 million in 

refunds to consumers who are likely to be members of historically underserved communities.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 29

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 179 Baseline N/A 165 165

Metric 1.4.3: Number of outreach events targeting diverse audiences.

The FTC conducts outreach and events to reach out to historically underserved communities to deliver timely 

and actionable consumer protection advice, hear about the consumer issues they experience, and help staff 

develop specific education messages and resources. 

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, the FTC participated in at least 179 events that reached advocates, consumers, 

and intermediaries who are trusted sources in the diverse communities they serve. For example, the FTC 

distributed hundreds of printed copies of educational material at in-person events that reached African 

American small business owners, librarians from small and rural communities, and Native American tribal 

leaders. The FTC also presented at virtual outreach events attended by community-based organizations 

serving Hispanic communities across the country, volunteers of the Senior Medicare Patrol, and ethnic media 

reporters.

Secondary Metric 1.4.4: Number of new organizations that partner with the FTC through the Community 

Advocate Center initiative.

The FTC’s Community Advocate Center initiative is aimed at partnering with community legal aid organizations 

to expand its outreach to lower-income communities to encourage them to report fraud and provide them 

with advice to help recover. The Community Advocate Center initiative provides a way for organizations that 

provide free and low-cost legal services to report fraud and other illegal business practices their clients have 

experienced directly to the FTC on behalf of their clients. By participating with the FTC’s Community Advocate 

Center, organizations can connect members of their communities to specific, concrete steps they can take to 

try to get their money back.

FY 2018 Actual FY 2019 Actual FY 2020 Actual FY 2021 Actual FY 2022 Actual

N/A N/A N/A N/A 10
30 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Strategic Goal 2: Protect the Public from Unfair Methods of Competition 

in the Marketplace and Promote Fair Competition.

The FTC’s efforts to prevent and police unfair methods of competition focus on preventing anticompetitive 

mergers and business practices through enforcement. The FTC also engages in policy research and 

development, advocacy, and education to deter anticompetitive practices and encourage federal, state, 

and local governments to evaluate the effects of their policies on fair competition. The FTC advances these 

goals internationally by fostering enforcement and policy convergence and through case cooperation with 

counterpart foreign enforcement authorities. This work is critical to protect and strengthen free and open 

markets – the cornerstone of a vibrant economy.

Four objectives guide work in this area:

• Objective 2.1: Identify, investigate, and take actions against anticompetitive mergers and business 

practices.

• Objective 2.2: Engage in research, advocacy, and outreach to promote public awareness and 

understanding of fair competition and its benefits.

• Objective 2.3: Collaborate with domestic and international partners to check unfair methods of 

competition.

• Objective 2.4: Support equity for historically underserved communities through the FTC’s competition 

mission.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 31

Strategic Goal 2 Metrics FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

Objective 2.1

Metric 2.1.1 Total consumer savings and other 

measurable benefits generated by antitrust 

enforcement

$2.68 

billion

$2.77 

billion

$3.12 

billion $2.4 billion $2.4 billion $2.4 billion

Metric 2.1.2 Total consumer savings and other 

measurable benefits generated by antitrust 

enforcement compared to resources spent.

$34.40 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

$34.70 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

$37.30 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

$35.00 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

$35.00 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

$35.00 in 

consumer 

savings 

per $1 

spent

Metric 2.1.3 Percentage of cases and investigations 

involving collaboration with BCP. N/A N/A 5% Baseline Baseline TBD

Metric 2.1.4 Percentage of antitrust matters seeking 

significant remedial, precedential, or deterrent 

effects across the marketplace.

N/A N/A 58% Baseline Baseline TBD

Metric 2.1.5 Percentage of full-phase investigations 

that (1) proceeded to litigation that ultimately 

halted or deterred lawbreaking or resulted in greater 

clarification of the law, or (2) ended when a merger 

was abandoned in anticipation of an FTC challenge.

N/A N/A 38% Baseline Baseline TBD

Objective 2.2

Metric 2.2.1 Number of reports and studies issued 

on competition related topics. 7 8 6 8 7 7

Metric 2.2.2 Number of cases for which BE 

economists prepared to testify as expert witnesses 

in FTC antitrust enforcement actions.

N/A N/A 5 Baseline Baseline TBD

Metric 2.2.3 Percentage of competition advocacy 

matters filed with entities including federal and state 

legislatures, agencies, or courts that were successful.

N/A N/A N/A Baseline Baseline TBD

Objective 2.3

Metric 2.3.1 Percentage of FTC cases involving at 

least one substantive contact with a foreign antitrust 

authority in which the agencies followed consistent 

analytical approaches and reached compatible 

outcomes.

100% 100% 100% 90% 85% 85%
32 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Strategic Goal 2 Metrics FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

Objective 2.4

Metric 2.4.1 Dollar value of harm from potentially 

anticompetitive conduct and transactions having an 

adverse economic impact on consumers, workers, 

and small businesses in historically underserved 

communities.

N/A N/A

< Poverty 

Line: 

$343.1m 

Hispanic: 

$476.4m 

Other 

Underserved 

Communities: 

$358.1m

Baseline Baseline TBD

Metric 2.4.2 Percentage of populations impacted by 

actions taken to maintain competition who belong 

to historically underserved communities.

N/A N/A

< Poverty 

Line: 11.8% 

Hispanic: 

15.7% 

Other 

Underserved 

Communities: 

11.8%

Baseline Baseline TBD

Metric 2.4.3 Percentage of actions taken to 

maintain competition where the merger or conduct 

was identified as adversely impacting historically 

underserved communities.

N/A N/A 25% Baseline Baseline TBD
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 33

Objective 2.1: Identify, investigate, and take actions against anticompetitive mergers and business practices.

Goal Leaders: Director, Bureau of Competition; Director, Bureau of Economics

Anticompetitive mergers and business practices harm Americans through higher prices, lower wages, or 

reduced quality, choice, and innovation. Enforcement of antitrust laws provides substantial benefits to the 

public by helping to ensure that markets are open and competitive. 

The FTC’s Bureaus of Competition and Economics investigate proposed and consummated mergers, as well as 

business conduct that may be anticompetitive. The FTC takes enforcement action when it has reason to believe 

that mergers or conduct are unlawful, using its enforcement tools (including federal court and administrative 

litigation and consent orders) to prevent or remedy harm. In each case, the FTC strives to efficiently address 

the competitive concerns raised by a merger or business practice and works toward a solution that maintains 

competition in the marketplace without unduly burdening legitimate business activity. 

The Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Premerger Notification Act is the FTC’s primary tool in identifying anticompetitive 

mergers. The FTC administers the HSR program for itself and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice 

(DOJ), which shares authority to challenge anticompetitive mergers. Premerger notification gives the agencies 

the opportunity to block or remedy proposed mergers before they are consummated. Both for mergers not 

subject to HSR notification requirements and for anticompetitive conduct matters, the FTC relies on other tools 

such as referrals, the trade press, consumer and competitor complaints, and other means to identify potential 

or ongoing harm to competition.

Strategies

Investigate: Investigate potentially anticompetitive mergers and business conduct efficiently using rigorous, 

economically sound, and fact-based analyses that enhance enforcement outcomes for the benefit of 

consumers, workers, and honest businesses. 

Enforce the antitrust laws: Enforce the law to protect all segments of the population from anticompetitive 

mergers and business practices, including by enforcing federal court and administrative orders obtained by the 

FTC. 

Improve compliance: Improve oversight to ensure compliance with Commission orders and with HSR reporting 

obligations. Increase the use of structural remedies in consent orders and seek increased use in litigated 

matters. Likewise, decrease the use of behavioral remedies in consent orders and seek them less often in 

litigated matters. Encourage parties to propose standalone, operating businesses as settlements. Increase use 

of provisions to improve worker mobility including restricting the use of non-compete provisions. Seek higher 

penalties for order violations and HSR violations. Increase use of prior approval provisions to prevent illegal 

transactions in the same markets as those already under order. Provide transparency in the decision-making 

process through comment periods, press releases, blog posts, updated policy guidance, and analyses to aid 

public comment

Improve litigation skills: Improve negotiation and litigation skills and refine investigative and decisional tools 

through continuous learning. Negotiate merger and nonmerger consent orders and pursue litigated orders that 

have significant remedial, precedential, and deterrent effects. 

External Factors and Risks

Resource constraints

• Investigations and litigation are increasingly complex because of the need to process, store, and review 

large amounts of electronic discovery materials and the need to hire economic and other experts. This 

complexity, coupled with fluctuations in merger activity and complaints of potentially harmful business 

conduct, can put pressure on the FTC’s staffing and financial resources.
34 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

HSR Statutory Deadlines

• The HSR Act provides the agencies with a 30-day window to determine whether a deal warrants close 

investigation and then a 30-day timeline to make a decision whether or not to challenge a merger after 

parties certify they have “substantially complied” with the investigatory requests. Given increased volume 

and complexity of transactions and our limited staffing resources, this imposes further strain on the 

agency’s ability to scrutinize potentially anticompetitive transactions.

State and federal legislative and judicial landscape

• The ever-evolving legislative landscape, with respect to both federal and state antitrust enforcement 

authority, may directly impact the Commission’s ability to challenge anticompetitive mergers and business 

conduct. The dynamic environment also pushes staff to identify different approaches to enforcement to 

preserve competition for the benefit of the American public.

FY 2022 Progress Update

Despite the lingering effects of a global pandemic, the agency continued its vigorous enforcement by bringing 

24 competition enforcement actions; in seven matters the Commission initiated federal court or administrative 

litigation, and in 12 other matters the Commission issued consent orders to remedy prospective harm to 

competition. Notably, in a continued effort to maximize enforcement effectiveness, each of the consent orders 

issued by the Commission included tailored prior approval provisions—a powerful enforcement tool that 

provides the Commission with advance notice of certain future transactions and the opportunity to review 

them, allowing staff to efficiently guard against potential harm to competition in markets of known concern. 

In an additional five merger matters, the parties abandoned or restructured their proposed acquisitions to 

address Commission concerns that the original transaction likely would have harmed competition; these 

results preserved competition in the affected markets, without resource-intensive litigation. 

Technology

• Monopolization in Technology Markets: The Commission has devoted substantial resources to rooting 

out and challenging anticompetitive practices in dynamic technology markets. While the public may 

benefit from new products and services available on popular platforms, they may also be harmed by 

anticompetitive conduct; therefore, the FTC is committed to aggressively pursuing antitrust enforcement 

to root out these practices and protect the public. Notably, in December 2020 the Commission 

authorized staff to file a landmark monopolization case against Facebook (now Meta) in federal court. 

The complaint alleged the company has engaged in a systematic strategy, including the acquisition 

of nascent competitors, to maintain its monopoly, thereby allowing Meta to impose anticompetitive 

terms on software developers. After the judge granted Meta’s motion to dismiss the FTC’s complaint, 

the Commission filed an amended complaint in August 2021. In January 2022, the judge denied Meta’s 

motion to dismiss the amended complaint. This matter is pending in federal court. The FTC continues to 

monitor new and emerging areas in technology markets, including virtual reality. In July 2022, the FTC 

filed a second case against Meta, this time seeking to block the acquisition of Within Unlimited and its 

popular virtual reality dedicated exercise app, Supernatural. The Commission filed an amended complaint 

in October 2022 alleging that the proposed acquisition would tend to create a monopoly in the virtual 

reality dedicated fitness app market. The complaint further alleges that absent the proposed acquisition, 

Meta would likely have entered the VR dedicated exercise app market, leading to deconcentration in the 

market. In January 2023, the Judge found that the facts did not support issuing a preliminary injunction in 

the matter, although the Court’s decision clarified in a helpful way some of the legal principles that, in the 

past, had made such challenges in tech markets difficult to pursue as a matter of law.

• Semiconductor Chips: In December 2021, the FTC initiated administrative adjudication to block U.S. chip 

supplier Nvidia Corp.’s $40 billion acquisition of U.K. chip design provider Arm Ltd. Semiconductor chips 
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 35

power computers and technologies that are essential to our modern economy and society. The proposed 

vertical integration of Nvidia and Arm would have given one of the largest chip companies control over 

licensed computing technology and designs that rival firms rely on to develop their own competing chips. 

The FTC’s complaint alleged that the combined firm could stifle innovative next-generation technologies, 

including chips that power a wide range of modern computing devices from smartphones to tablets to 

driver-assistance systems to computers in large datacenters. Because Arm’s technology is a critical input 

that enables competition between Nvidia and other chipmakers in several markets, the complaint alleged 

that the proposed merger would give Nvidia the ability and incentive to use its control of this technology 

to undermine its competitors, reducing competition and ultimately resulting in reduced product quality, 

reduced innovation, higher prices, and less choice, harming the millions of Americans who benefit from 

Arm-based products. The parties abandoned this transaction shortly after the Commission issued its 

complaint.

Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals

The healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors were again a priority area for competition enforcement. The FTC 

works to promote competition in healthcare by eliminating impediments to entry by generic drug producers, 

stopping illegal conduct by providers of healthcare products and services, preventing anticompetitive mergers 

in the industry, and using its policy tools to advocate for sound competition policy within the United States and 

globally where appropriate.

• Healthcare Mergers: The FTC continued its enforcement against anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions 

of healthcare providers. This year, the FTC issued administrative complaints and authorized staff to seek 

a preliminary injunction in federal court in three merger matters involving the provision of healthcare 

services. In all three matters, the parties abandoned their proposed acquisitions shortly after the FTC 

issued its complaint. 

In the first matter, in February 2022 the FTC authorized staff to seek injunctive relief blocking the proposed 

merger of Rhode Island’s two largest healthcare providers, alleging the deal would lead to higher prices 

and lower quality care. The FTC, jointly with the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General, filed a 

complaint in federal district court seeking to block Lifespan Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Care New 

England Health System. According to the complaint, both Lifespan and Care New England offer a broad 

range of essential medical and surgical diagnostic and treatment services that require an overnight 

hospital stay, known as inpatient general acute care, or GAC, services. They also operate the only two 

standalone inpatient behavioral health facilities in Rhode Island. The complaint alleged that the proposed 

merger would likely reduce competition in the state of Rhode Island and 19 nearby Massachusetts 

communities for inpatient GAC hospital services and inpatient behavioral health services by increasing 

the combined firm’s ability to raise hospital rates, leading to higher individual premiums, co-pays, and 

deductibles, and reducing incentives to invest in quality of care, access to services, and technology. 

In a second matter, the Commission authorized an administrative complaint and a lawsuit in federal court 

to block the proposed merger between Utah healthcare competitors HCA Healthcare and Steward Health 

Care System. The complaint alleged that the deal would eliminate the second and fourth largest healthcare 

systems in the Wasatch Front region, where approximately 80 percent of Utah’s residents live. The 

companies provide inpatient GAC services and compete for inclusion in insurer networks, as well as for 

health care quality, service lines, and nurse and physician recruitment. The complaint further alleged that 

the transaction would significantly increase market concentration levels in an already highly concentrated 

geographic market, enabling HCA to command even higher reimbursement rates from commercial insurers 

that likely would pass on at least a portion of those higher healthcare costs to employers and health plan 

members in the form of increased premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and other out-of-pocket expenses. 
36 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

In the third matter, the FTC authorized an administrative complaint and sought injunctive relief in federal 

court to block the acquisition by RWJBarnabas (RWJ) of Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, one of the largest 

hospital systems in New Jersey. The complaint alleged that in Middlesex County, NJ, the acquisition would 

have harmed competition for inpatient GAC services by giving the combined healthcare system a market 

share of approximately 50 percent, easily resulting in a presumption of harm under the antitrust laws. RWJ 

and St. Peter’s are direct competitors and both systems routinely identify the other as the most significant 

competitor when assessing competition and strategizing on providing GAC services in Middlesex County. 

Absent this head-to-head competition, the combined system would have reduced incentives to improve 

quality, technology, amenities, equipment, access to care, and service offerings. 

In another healthcare matter, the Commission issued a consent order to resolve allegations that DaVita 

Inc.’s proposed acquisition of the University of Utah Health’s dialysis clinics would reduce competition 

for vital outpatient dialysis services in the Provo, Utah, market. According to the FTC’s complaint, there 

are only three providers of outpatient dialysis services to patients in the greater Provo, Utah, area. The 

acquisition would have eliminated actual, direct, and substantial competition between dialysis clinics 

owned by DaVita and University of Utah Health and would have tended to create a monopoly. Under the 

proposed order, DaVita is required to divest three Provo-area dialysis clinics to Sanderling Renal Services, 

Inc. and is prohibited from entering into or enforcing non-compete agreements and other employee 

restrictions. Importantly, under the order, DaVita is also required to receive prior approval from the FTC 

before acquiring any new ownership interest in a dialysis clinic anywhere in Utah for a period of ten 

years. This critical tool will help the Commission quickly identify and ultimately prevent future facially 

anticompetitive deals by DaVita, a particularly acquisitive company. 

• Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Diagnostics Mergers: During FY 2022, the FTC reviewed numerous 

proposed and consummated acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries and took 

action to preserve competition when needed. 

In November 2021, the FTC issued a consent order requiring generic drug marketers ANI Pharmaceuticals 

Inc. and Novitium Pharma LLC to divest, to Prasco LLC, ANI’s development rights to one generic drug used 

to treat common infections and assets with respect to another generic drug used to treat inflammation. 

The settlement resolved charges that ANI’s $210 million acquisition of Novitium likely would be 

anticompetitive in the markets for generic sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim oral suspension, also known 

as SMX-TMP, and generic dexamethasone tablets. According to the complaint, generic SMX-TMP oral 

suspension is an antibiotic used to treat a variety of infections, including ear infections, urinary tract 

infections, and bronchitis. ANI is a current participant in this market, while Novitium is one of a limited 

number of companies well positioned to enter. Generic dexamethasone tablets are an oral steroid 

product used to treat inflammation associated with a variety of conditions, including certain types of 

arthritis, allergic reactions, skin diseases, and breathing problems. Both ANI and Novitium have products 

in development in this market and the acquisition would eliminate a potential entrant in an already 

concentrated market. Without a remedy, the acquisition would likely harm future competition in U.S. 

markets for both of these generic products. Under the terms of the order, ANI and Novitium were required 

to divest ANI’s rights and assets to generic SMX-TMP oral suspension and generic dexamethasone tablets 

to Prasco within 10 days after the acquisition was final. The order also contained prior approval provisions 

that gives the Commission notice and approval rights for future related acquisitions in these markets.

In April 2022, the FTC issued a consent order to remedy concerns that Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC’s $375 

million acquisition of Custopharm Inc. would have harmed competition in the market for the corticosteroid 

drug triamcinolone acetonide, or TCA. The order requires Custopharm to divest its TCA-related assets to 

another subsidiary, Long Grove Pharmaceuticals LLC. The order also preserves nascent competition in the 

market for generic TCA by removing any incentive for Hikma to terminate or delay the marketing of the 
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 37

TCA product in its own development pipeline, which historically leads to lower prices for patients. Further, 

the consent agreement requires Long Grove to maintain the competitive viability of the retained TCA 

assets going forward and requires Hikma to seek prior Commission approval for future acquisitions related 

to TCA. 

In a medical device matter, in May 2022 the FTC issued a consent order placing conditions on Medtronic 

Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Intersect ENT, Inc. The order required Medtronic to divest Intersect 

subsidiary, Fiagon, which makes ear, nose, and throat navigation systems and balloon sinus dilation 

products, to Hemostasis LLC to prevent concentration and ultimately harm to patients. According to the 

complaint, Medtronic is a global medical device company that is a dominant provider of ENT navigation 

systems, which allow physicians to view and track the location of instruments during sinus procedures. 

Medtronic also develops and markets balloon sinus dilation products, which physicians use to clear 

blocked sinuses. Intersect is a California-based medical device company that focuses on devices for ENT 

procedures, and its Fiagon subsidiary is a nascent competitor in the U.S. markets for both ENT navigation 

systems and balloon sinus dilation products. The order also imposes prior approval requirements on 

Medtronic, Intersect, and the divestiture buyer. 

In addition to these cases, in June 2022 the FTC issued the “Policy Statement on Rebates and Fees” in 

Exchange for Excluding Lower-Cost Drug Products to explain its enforcement policy relating to instances 

when large rebates and fees paid by drug manufacturers to pharmacy benefit managers leads to lowercost drugs being excluded from formularies or patients being steered to higher-cost drugs. 

• Veterinary Healthcare Services: In June 2022, the FTC twice took action against JAB Consumer Partners to 

prevent the private equity firm from consolidating control over specialty and emergency veterinary clinics. 

Pet owners rely on emergency clinics when they need care at all hours, including when general practice 

veterinarians are closed. Pet owners rely on specialty veterinarians for services that are beyond those 

typically offered by general veterinarians, such as internal medicine, neurology, medical oncology, critical 

care, ophthalmology, and surgery. The Commission issued two complaints alleging that JAB’s proposed 

$1.65 billion acquisition of the parent company of veterinary clinic owner Ethos, as well as its $1.1 billion 

acquisition of SAGE Veterinary Partners, likely would have harmed competition for various veterinary 

care services in local markets in Virginia, Washington, DC, Colorado, Texas, and California. To remedy 

competitive concerns, the Commission issued two consent orders requiring JAB to divest clinics in each 

of the already highly concentrated geographic markets. In both matters the Commission imposed robust 

prior approval and prior notice requirements on JAB’s future acquisitions of specialty and emergency 

veterinary clinics, and both orders also impose prior approval requirements on the divestiture buyers. 

Consumer Goods and Services

The Commission continued to take action to preserve competition in the consumer goods and services sector. 

• Retail Grocery Stores: In November 2021, the FTC issued a consent order requiring New York-based 

supermarket operators The Golub Corp. and Tops Market Corp. to divest assets in order to settle charges 

that their proposed merger would likely be anticompetitive in 11 local markets across upstate New York 

and Vermont. The FTC consent order requires Golub Corp, operator of Price Chopper, and Tops to divest to 

C&S 12 Tops stores and related assets in the affected communities. The order also requires the parties to 

obtain the FTC’s prior approval before selling or acquiring supermarkets in the affected markets.

Energy

The FTC devotes significant resources to investigating competition issues in energy markets, which are critically 

important to American consumers, workers, and businesses. This year, the FTC continued to carefully scrutinize 

proposed acquisitions involving energy products and took enforcement action when warranted. 
38 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

• Gasoline and Diesel Fuel: In December 2021, Global Partners LP and Richard Wiehl agreed to divest to 

Petroleum Marketing Investment Group LLC seven stores that sell gasoline and diesel fuel in five local 

markets in Connecticut, to settle FTC charges that Global’s proposed acquisition of 27 Wheels retail 

gasoline and diesel outlets owned or operated by Wiehl violated federal antitrust laws. According to the 

complaint, markets for retail gasoline and retail diesel fuel are highly localized, and consumers have no 

economic or practical alternatives to the retail sale of gasoline or diesel fuel. In addition to the divestment, 

the order also imposes prior approval requirements on Global and the divestiture buyer. 

In March 2022, EnCap Energy Corp. agreed to divest its entire business and assets in Utah to resolve FTC 

allegations that its proposed $1.445 billion acquisition of EP Energy Corp. would eliminate head-to-head 

competition between two of only four significant producers of Uinta Basin waxy crude oil in Salt Lake 

City, increasing the likelihood of collusion or coordination among the remaining competitors. Uinta Basin 

waxy crude possesses distinct qualities that make it both difficult to transport and especially valuable 

for producing transportation fuel and other petroleum products, and Salt Lake City-area refiners have 

invested capital to optimize certain equipment to best utilize Uinta Basin waxy crude. Under the proposed 

settlement, EnCap is required to divest EP’s business and assets in Utah to Crescent Energy Company 

introducing a new, experienced competitor in the Uinta Basin. The order also imposes prior approval 

requirements on both EnCap and the divestiture buyer. 

In another oil and gas matter, the FTC issued a consent order requiring pipeline and storage companies 

Buckeye Partners LP and Magellan Midstream Partners LP to divest to U.S. Venture Inc. petroleum 

terminals in two states as a condition of Buckeye’s $435 million proposed acquisition of 26 Magellan 

terminals. Terminals and terminaling services are critical to the efficient distribution of gasoline and other 

light petroleum products to end users. Without a remedy, the acquisition would harm competition for 

terminaling services both for all light petroleum products and for gasoline specifically in three markets in 

South Carolina and Alabama. In all three geographic markets, the acquisition would eliminate the close 

competition between Buckeye and Magellan, increase the likelihood of collusive or coordinated interaction 

between the remaining competitors, reduce the number of terminaling options for third-party customers, 

and increase prices for terminaling services. The consent agreement settling the FTC’s complaint requires 

Buckeye to sell five terminals and associated assets to divestiture buyer U.S. Venture within 10 days of 

consummation. Going forward, both Buckeye and the divestiture buyer are subject to prior approval 

requirements.

In still another oil and gas matter, the Commission issued a consent order to restore competition in 

gasoline and diesel markets in Michigan and Ohio by requiring ARKO Corp. and its subsidiary GPM to roll 

back provisions of their 2021 acquisition of 60 Express Stop retail fuel outlets from Corrigan Oil Company. 

The order establishes limits on an agreement not to compete imposed on Corrigan Oil and returns to 

Corrigan operational control of five retail fuel outlets in five Michigan markets. According to the complaint, 

the agreement not to compete inappropriately included markets outside of those where the 60 retail fuel 

outlets were purchased, was unreasonably overbroad in geographic scope in the 60 markets where fuel 

outlets were acquired and was unreasonable in duration. In order to prevent future harm to competition 

in the relevant markets, the order imposes a prior approval provision requiring ARKO to seek Commission 

approval before acquiring retail fuel assets in the immediate vicinity of the returned locations for a period 

of 10 years. 

Defense

The FTC remains vigilant in investigating potential harm to competition in critical defense industry markets, 

working with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) as necessary to ensure that antitrust analysis is considered 

in tandem with national security and other interests implicated by these sensitive transactions.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 39

• Missile Systems: In January 2022, in its first litigated defense merger challenge in decades, the FTC 

authorized staff to seek injunctive relief blocking Lockheed Martin Corporation’s $4.4 billion proposed 

vertical acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. Aerojet supplies advanced power, propulsion, and 

armament systems, which are critical components for the missiles made by Lockheed and other defense 

prime contractors. The agency’s complaint alleged that Lockheed’s proposed acquisition of Aerojet would 

have given Lockheed control over critical propulsion inputs that its rivals require to compete against 

Lockheed. DoD reviewed the acquisition and considered the potential impacts of the transaction on 

national security, the nation’s industrial and technological base, competition, and innovation. As part 

this assessment, DoD facilitated a series of FTC-led interviews with DoD-impacted stakeholders. DoD’s 

assessment was provided to the FTC for its deliberations and final decision-making. The complaint further 

alleged that as a subcontractor, Aerojet has had access to prime contractors’ sensitive information about 

technological advancements, cost, schedule, and business strategies and that, post-acquisition, Lockheed 

would have an incentive to exploit this knowledge to gain an advantage in competitions against these 

parties. The U.S. government in turn would be harmed because the cost of missile systems, missile defense 

kill vehicles, and hypersonic cruise missiles would likely increase, innovation would be lessened, and 

quality would be reduced, hindering national security and defense interests. Shortly after the complaint 

was issued, the parties abandoned their proposed transaction. 

Chemicals and Industrial Goods 

The FTC continues to devote significant resources to maintain competition in markets for chemicals and 

industrial goods.

• Pesticides: In September 2022, the FTC filed a complaint in federal court alleging that pesticides 

manufacturers Syngenta Crop Protection and Corteva, Inc. paid distributors to block competitors from 

selling cheaper generic pesticide products. According to the Commission’s complaint, the firms used 

so-called “loyalty programs” through which distributors only received payment by limiting business with 

competing manufacturers. The firms’ alleged scheme artificially extended the useful life of expired patent 

monopolies, enabling the firms to charge higher prices to farmers who need these products to protect 

their crops, as well as to smaller pesticide manufacturers, and consumers. The Commission action seeks to 

enjoin the illegal pay-to-block scheme and restore competition to affected markets. This matter is pending 

in federal court

• Glass-Based Coatings/Colorants: In April 2022, the FTC issued a consent order to remedy allegations that 

Prince International Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Ferro Corp. would likely have harmed competition in 

the North American market for porcelain enamel frit and in the world markets for forehearth colorants 

and glass enamel. According to the complaint, these products are used in range of applications, including 

the manufacture of porcelain enamel coatings and glass colorants. The Commission’s order preserves 

competition in all three markets by requiring Prince and Ferro to divest to KPS Capital Partners LP three 

Prince facilities: a porcelain enamel frit and forehearth colorants plant in Leesburg, Alabama; a porcelain 

enamel frit and forehearth colorants plant and research center in Bruges, Belgium; and a glass enamel 

plant in Cambiago, Italy. The order also requires both the newly merged company and the divestiture 

buyer to obtain prior FTC approval for 10 years for certain future transactions involving these product 

markets.

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective 

• Work to secure the resources necessary to effectively enforce the antitrust laws to ensure that the 

public benefits from the lower prices, higher quality, increased innovation, and expanded choices that 

competition brings.
40 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

• Expand employee development programs to increase the antitrust expertise and investigative, negotiation, 

and litigation skills of legal staff through continuous learning and retrospective analysis.

• Utilize BC’s Training Council to identify legal staff development opportunities and provide targeted 

training programs to meet those needs. Focus on enhancing the investigative process using improved 

technological tools and the identification of “best practices” to streamline and standardize management of 

investigations and litigation.

• Review and update, where necessary, premerger notification filing requirements and screening methods 

to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.

• Employ novel enforcement techniques in response to a challenging judicial environment, including 

working with state enforcement partners to remediate harm to competition.

Performance Metrics

Metric 2.1.1: Total consumer savings and other measurable benefits generated by antitrust enforcement.

This metric reports the estimated amount of money that the Commission saved consumers by taking action 

against potentially anticompetitive mergers and business conduct. The number reported is a five-year “rolling 

average” (average of the current year and four prior year totals).

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

$3.76 billion $4.87 billion $2.68 billion $2.77 billion $3.12 billion $2.4 billion Exceeded $2.4 billion $2.4 billion

FY 2022 Highlights: The FTC concluded 20 full-phase investigations with actions in FY 2022, including 18 

merger matters and 2 conduct matters. Six of the concluded matters involved federal court litigation or 

administrative adjudication, while 11 were concluded with a settlement, and three were resolved when the 

parties abandoned their transactions in anticipation of an FTC challenge.

Metric 2.1.2: Total consumer savings and other measurable benefits generated by antitrust enforcement 

compared to resources spent.

This metric reports the estimated amount of money that the Commission saved consumers by taking action 

against potentially anticompetitive mergers and business conduct compared to the amount spent on the 

merger program. The amount reported is a five-year “rolling average” (average of the current year and four 

prior year totals).

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

$52.30 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent

$66.00 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent

$34.40 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent

$34.70 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent

$37.30 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent

$35.00 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent

Exceeded

$35.00 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent

$35.00 in 

consumer 

savings per 

$1 spent

FY 2022 Highlights: Despite increasing costs driven by the expanding scope and complexity of antitrust 

investigations and the Commission’s substantial competition litigation docket, the agency exceeded its target 

for this performance metric, saving the public approximately $37 for every dollar spent on its enforcement 

programs.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 41

Metric 2.1.3: Percentage of cases and investigations involving collaboration with BCP. 

This metric reports the percentage of full-phase investigations concluded in which the Bureau of Competition 

collaborated in some aspect(s) of the investigation, with FTC colleagues in the Bureau of Consumer Protection.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 5% Baseline N/A Baseline TBD

FY 2022 Highlights: Increasingly, the Commission is striving to streamline the investigative process and identify 

synergies between the agency’s dual missions to protect consumers and competition. The Commission 

accordingly has prioritized information sharing and cross-functional investigations, wherever possible, which 

makes more efficient use of the Commission’s limited resources and has the potential to reduce redundancy in 

investigative processes. In the first year that the agency has tracked this endeavor, the Bureau of Competition 

and Bureau of Consumer Protection collaborated substantively in 5% of the full-phase matters concluded 

in the fiscal period. The Commission will continue to track this important information-sharing initiative and 

anticipates that the degree of collaboration will continue to increase in the coming years.

Metric 2.1.4: Percentage of antitrust matters seeking significant remedial, precedential, or deterrent effects 

across the marketplace.

This metric reports the percentage of concluded full-phase investigations that sought significant remedial 

action, or which were anticipated to have substantial precedential value or effectuate broad deterrence of 

future anticompetitive mergers or conduct.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 58% Baseline N/A Baseline TBD

FY 2022 Highlights: Increasingly, the Commission is adapting its investigative and litigation strategies to clarify 

antitrust law and ensure it is reflective of modern market realities. Accordingly, the agency is prioritizing 

matters that seek significant remedies, or that identify precedential theories of harm or further significant 

deterrence of future anticompetitive behavior in the marketplace. In FY 2022, the Commission concluded 

26 full-phase antitrust matters. Of those concluded matters, 15 sought or achieved significant remedial, 

precedential, or deterrent effects, including the incorporation of prior approval provisions in consent orders, 

litigation challenges pleading unique theories of harm, precedential remedies such as partial industry bans, 

and working with state partners to obtain equitable monetary relief. 
42 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 38% Baseline N/A Baseline TBD

FY 2022 Highlights: Federal court and administrative litigation are the two most powerful enforcement tools 

at the Commission’s disposal, and are also the most resource-intensive. This metric assesses the outcomes of 

matters in federal court litigation or administrative adjudication, or where parties abandon or restructure their 

transactions due to an impending challenge. Of the 26 full-phase matters concluded in FY 2022, six matters 

progressed to litigation, including one litigated victory and five matters in which the parties abandoned their 

transaction before reaching a federal court or administrative hearing. In four additional matters, the parties 

abandoned or restructured their proposed transactions in anticipation of a Commission challenge. 

Secondary Metric 2.1.6: Total sales in the affected markets in which the Commission took antitrust 

enforcement actions.

This metric demonstrates that the Commission’s merger actions are guided in part by the size of the relevant 

product/geographic markets involved. It is important that the FTC use its resources in areas where it can 

achieve the most positive change. The number reported is a five-year “rolling average” (average of the current 

year and four prior year totals).

Metric 2.1.5: Percentage of full-phase antitrust investigations that (1) proceeded to litigation that ultimately 

halted or deterred lawbreaking or resulted in greater clarification of the law or (2) ended when a merger was 

abandoned in anticipation of an FTC challenge.

This metric reports the percentage of concluded full-phase investigations that either, 1) proceeded to 

litigation which ultimately halted or deterred lawbreaking or for which the holding clarified the law in a way 

deemed beneficial to future competition enforcement, or 2) which ended when a merger was abandoned or 

restructured by the parties in anticipation of the Commission authorizing either federal court or administrative 

adjudication.

FY 2018 Actual FY 2019 Actual FY 2020 Actual FY 2021 Actual FY 2022 Actual

$178.9 billion $193.18 billion $81.3 billion $79.2 billion $54.10 billion
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 43

Objective 2.2: Engage in research, advocacy, and outreach to promote public awareness of fair competition 

and its benefits.

Goal Leaders: Director, Bureau of Competition; Director, Bureau of Economics; General Counsel, Office of the 

General Counsel; Director, Office of Policy Planning

Through research, advocacy, and rulemaking, the FTC seeks both to understand the marketplace as it evolves 

over time and to provide guidance to the business community, policymakers, and the public. Whether through 

analyzing industry data, holding public hearings and workshops, or conducting economic studies, the FTC 

gathers information for its staff of economists, technologists, and other researchers to analyze. Our research 

work directly informs our law enforcement work and is often released to the public through staff reports and 

studies. 

As the economy continues to evolve the FTC must ensure we are fully grasping market realities, especially as 

the economy becomes increasingly digitized. The agency plans to be especially attentive to next-generation 

technologies, innovations, and nascent industries across sectors. By staying apprised of new developments, the 

agency can learn from new evidence and course correct as needed. An interdisciplinary team of researchers 

and analysts will best position the FTC to mitigate information asymmetries and narrow the gap between 

theory and practice. 

The FTC also promotes competition through advocacy and education. In its advocacy work, the FTC files 

comments with federal, state, and local government bodies and encourages them to consider the effect their 

proposed actions will have on competition. In another form of advocacy, the FTC files amicus briefs with 

federal courts to develop antitrust law in the public interest. The FTC also endeavors to educate consumers and 

businesses about competition law and policy. Rules and guidance inform businesses and their legal advisers 

about antitrust risks and can deter anticompetitive mergers and business practices and reduce businesses’ cost 

of compliance

Strategies 

• Research new developments in the marketplace: Improve the agency’s understanding of various practices 

and developments in the marketplace by conducting economic research on these issues and holding public 

hearings, conferences, and workshops that bring together interested parties that represent the diversity of 

the American public. Use the information gathered to inform the agency’s enforcement agenda. Improve 

the dissemination of material gathered through hearings, conferences, and workshops. 

• Research effectiveness of remedies: Conduct market research, including evaluating the effectiveness of 

merger and conduct remedies, to inform future enforcement efforts. 

• Educate small businesses: Provide small businesses with practical, user-friendly educational resources to 

help them understand the law so they can comply with it and identify when they are victims of unlawful 

conduct

• Focus on workers: Study and investigate the impact on worker wages and benefits from merger and 

nonmerger conduct, as well as non-compete and other potentially unfair contractual terms resulting from 

power asymmetries between workers and employers. 

• Work with the media: Engage the media to disseminate clear and compelling content to the public at 

large with the goal of ensuring consumers understand what companies did wrong and what the FTC is 

doing to stop them. Ensure that regional and local outlets and reporters are aware of developments that 

impact their audiences and communities.
44 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

External Factors and Risks 

Resource constraints

• Financial and personnel resource limitations, driven primarily by the costs of litigation, may reduce 

resources available to provide reports, studies, workshops, and conferences.

FY 2022 Progress Update 

Providing policymakers with a framework to analyze competition issues is an important component of the 

FTC’s mission to promote competition for the benefit of the public. Government-imposed impediments can be 

among the most durable restraints on competition. Therefore, in response to requests, the FTC advises local, 

state, and federal entities on the potential competitive implications of pending governmental actions that may 

have a major impact on consumers. 

• Advocacy: In FY 2022, the FTC filed two amicus briefs in federal court and two advocacy comments related 

to competition.

• Staff submitted an amicus brief jointly with the United States in Oxbow Carbon Minerals, LLC v. Union 

Pacific Railroad Co., urging affirmance of the district court decision that interpreted a provision of the 

Staggers Act of 1980 to allow admission of evidence of alleged collusion among rail carriers.

• Staff submitted a comment to the Food and Drug Administration supporting a proposed rule 

establishing over-the-counter hearing aids. The comment supports the FDA’s efforts to make hearing 

products more accessible as a significant way to increase competition, reduce prices, and improve 

access to hearing aids.

• Staff submitted an amicus brief in Sessa v. TransUnion, before the Second Circuit. The district court had 

dismissed the case on the grounds that the inaccurate information was a “legal” inaccuracy and not a 

“factual” one and therefore was not actionable. The brief argued that the statutory language of the Fair 

Credit Reporting Act drew no such distinction and would be impossible to apply if it did. The brief also 

argued that the Act does not provide automatic immunity for credit report information that is supplied 

by a third party.

• The FTC, jointly with DOJ, filed comments with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission urging it not 

to restore a right of first refusal that would enable incumbent electricity transmission owners to block 

competitors from bidding to design, construct, and own certain new interstate transmission facilities. 

The comment notes that when FERC eliminated the ROFR under certain circumstances in 2011, it 

recognized the benefits to consumers of having competition for transmission design and construction. 

The comment urges FERC not to abandon competition, and it cites examples of where competition for 

transmission design and construction has resulted in lower costs and innovation.

• Workshops: In FY 2022, the Bureau of Economics hosted its Fourteenth Annual Microeconomics 

Conference. The workshop brought together scholars working in areas related to the FTC’s antitrust, 

consumer protection, and public policy missions. Jointly with the Department of Justice, the agencies held 

“Making Competition Work: Promoting Competition in Labor Markets,” which brought together lawyers, 

economists, academics, policy experts, labor groups, and workers, and explored recent developments at 

the intersection of antitrust and labor, as well as implications for efforts to protect and empower workers 

through competition enforcement and rulemaking. Also, jointly with the Department of Justice, the FTC 

hosted a series of listening forums to hear from those who have experienced firsthand the effects of 

mergers and acquisitions beyond antitrust experts, including consumers, workers, entrepreneurs, startups, farmers, investors, and independent businesses.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 45

• Section 6 Studies: In FY 2022, the FTC issued Orders under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act in two distinct 

sectors of the economy. Section 6(b) authorizes the Commission to conduct wide-ranging studies that do 

not have a specific law enforcement purpose.

• Supply Chain Disruptions: The FTC ordered nine large retailers, wholesalers, and consumer good 

suppliers to provide detailed information that will help the FTC shed light on the causes behind ongoing 

supply chain disruptions.

• Pharmacy Benefit Managers: The FTC ordered the six largest pharmacy benefit managers (“PBM”) to 

provide information and records regarding their business practices. The study will focus on the impact 

of vertically integrated PBMs on the access and affordability of prescription drugs.

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective 

• The Office of Policy Planning will seek to hire more attorneys, technologists, data analysts, financial 

analysts, and experts from outside disciplines. This will provide the FTC with the necessary resources to 

research new, developing practices in various marketplaces. 

• To expand our staff’s skillsets, the FTC will invest in more training and educational resources for existing 

and incoming talent

• The FTC will invest more time to develop its relationships with small businesses as well as state and 

federal government policymakers. This will inform the FTC about changing issues that are relevant to small 

businesses and will provide a resource to state and federal government policymakers. 

Performance Metrics

Metric 2.2.1: Number of reports and studies the FTC issued on competition related topics.

This metric reports competition policy-related activities such as Commission or staff research, reports, 

economic or policy papers, studies, or other significant antitrust guidance produced after substantive 

investigation, study, or analysis. These activities enhance the public’s knowledge of competition issues and 

promote the adoption of policies based on sound competitive principles to the extent possible. Also included 

as part of this metric are reports to other federal agencies that report on the FTC’s activities.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

9 4 7 8 6 8 Not Met 7 7

FY 2022 Highlights: The Commission issued six reports, studies, or policy statements in FY 2022, including 

two annual reports, a policy statement on competition and consumer protection considerations in the Gig 

Economy, and economic research analysis. Resource constraints continue to limit the resources available to the 

Commission for non-enforcement priorities, contributing, in part, to the agency failing to meet its target for 

this metric.
46 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Metric 2.2.2: Number of cases for which BE economists prepared to testify as expert witnesses in FTC antitrust 

enforcement actions.

The performance metric is the number of cases for which BE economists (including economists, financial 

analysts, research analysts, statisticians, and other BE staff) prepared to testify as expert witnesses in FTC 

antitrust enforcement actions. This number is a measure of BE expertise developed through economic 

research related to competition analysis and represents not only the expertise of the testifying expert, but also 

the expertise of the BE economists and other staff that are supporting that expert.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 5 Baseline N/A Baseline TBD

Metric 2.2.3: Percentage of competition advocacy matters files with entities, including federal and state 

legislatures, agencies, or courts that were successful.

The FTC’s competition advocacy takes many forms—including advocacy comments, amicus briefs, workshops, 

reports, and testimony. This metric evaluates the success rate for resolved competition advocacy comments 

and amicus briefs. Although the FTC is primarily a law enforcement agency, advocacy work is a cost-effective 

way to further the FTC’s competition mission and allows the FTC to address situations where competition may 

be affected by the actions of public entities, including regulators and legislators. 

To determine whether an advocacy comment or amicus brief is successful, staff waits for the relevant case, 

legislative process, or agency rulemaking to be fully resolved. Once resolved, the outcome is compared to the 

policy recommendations within the advocacy comment or the legal arguments set forth in the amicus brief. 

Advocacies are classified as successful, partially successful, moot, or unsuccessful based on the outcome 

achieved. We do not attempt to quantify or measure how much effect our advocacy had on the decision.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Baseline N/A Baseline TBD

FY 2022 Highlights: Data for this metric is often delayed, and was not yet available for FY 2022 at time of 

publication. The agency is working on improving the process to collect this data.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 47

Objective 2.3 Collaborate with domestic and international partners to check unfair methods of competition.

Goal Leaders: Director, Office of International Affairs; Director, Bureau of Competition; Director, Bureau of 

Economics

The FTC continues to build cooperative relationships with domestic and foreign antitrust agencies to ensure 

close collaboration on cases and foster the exchange of learning and understanding of policy issues of common 

concern. On the domestic front, the FTC seeks to collaborate with other agencies and the state attorneys 

general to obtain the best results and maximize the use of limited resources in the enforcement of the U.S. 

antitrust laws.

Cooperation with foreign competition agencies of other jurisdictions is a key component of an effective FTC 

competition enforcement program. With over 130 antitrust enforcers worldwide, it is critical that agencies 

work together to ensure that the international competition law system functions coherently and effectively. To 

accomplish this, the FTC builds strong bilateral relations with foreign counterparts, including new and emerging 

agencies through our technical assistance program, and takes a lead role in multilateral fora to promote case 

enforcement cooperation, greater policy understanding, and best practice. The FTC also works with relevant 

U.S. government agencies to develop, promote, and maintain competitive domestic markets and to address 

competition issues that implicate broader U.S. policy interests in a coordinated and effective manner. 

Strategies

• Collaborate domestically: Work more extensively within the U.S. government inter-agency process 

and with other domestic government entities to support the FTC’s efforts to promote market-based 

competition and policy convergence.

• Collaborate internationally: Work with international government and non-government partners to 

promote international cooperation and policy consistency aimed at sound and effective antitrust 

enforcement. Cooperation with foreign competition agencies on antitrust matters that are subject to 

concurrent review improves the effectiveness of investigations and promotes compatible outcomes. 

The FTC’s promotion of policy understanding encourages the development of international best practice 

standards and their application to transactions and conduct affecting the global marketplace. 

External Factors and Risks

• Case compatibility and policy consistency involve numerous stakeholders, political considerations, 

competing competition laws, and economic factors: Promoting international case cooperation and policy 

consistency is a long-term endeavor that can be affected by events beyond the agency’s control, such as 

foreign court proceedings, the COVID-19 pandemic, and political changes that result in changes in foreign 

counterpart agencies’ policies and staff and restrict best practices and information exchanges. Political 

turmoil in certain regions can also make cooperation on particular issues more difficult. International 

technical assistance would be hampered if external resources are not available, U.S. embassies abroad are 

not supportive, or if foreign governments are not willing to accept U.S. assistance

FY 2022 Progress Update

International Antitrust 

In support of its competition mission and domestic antitrust enforcement, the FTC regularly works with foreign 

antitrust agencies to ensure close collaboration on cross-border cases and foster the exchange of learning 

on and common understanding of policy issues of common concern. Our international engagement helps to 

ensure that we are taking advantage of the most current learning of our counterparts while strengthening our 

collective and domestic enforcement against anticompetitive conduct. 
48 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

• In FY 2022, the FTC continued to develop cooperative relationships with foreign antitrust agencies to 

ensure close collaboration on cross-border cases and contribute to greater international alignment 

among agencies on pressing antitrust issues raised in matters under concurrent review. During the most 

recently completed fiscal year, the FTC engaged in significant enforcement cooperation on 33 merger and 

anticompetitive conduct investigations of mutual concern with counterpart agencies from 16 jurisdictions. 

Consistent with our domestic focus, many of these matters involved technology and pharmaceutical 

matters, and many involved cooperation with several agencies to achieve effective, sound, and consistent 

outcomes. For example, we cooperated with DG Competition, the UK Competition and Markets Authority, 

the Japan Fair Trade Commission, and the Korea Fair Trade Commission in our review of the NVIDIA/Arm 

transaction, which helped lead to the parties’ abandonment of the transaction.

• Recognizing a continuing need to deepen and refine cooperation, we are working with key partners and 

leading efforts in multilateral fora, such as the International Competition Network (ICN), the Competition 

Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the United Nations 

Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to develop enhanced cooperation tools. For example, 

following the FTC’s signing the 2020 Multilateral Mutual Assistance in Competition Framework, the 

Commission is working with counterparts to develop enhanced cooperation agreements based on the 

Framework’s template. We are also engaged in long-term projects in multilateral fora dedicated to 

understanding and improving competition cooperation

• More broadly, the FTC plays a central role in key multilateral fora dedicated to promoting sound 

competition policy and enforcement internationally. In the ICN, for example, the Commission is a member 

of the ICN’s Steering Group, and it launched and co-leads a project on the interface between competition, 

data privacy, and consumer protection enforcement and policies in light of emerging digital economy 

issues.

• The FTC, along with DOJ’s Antitrust Division, continued to conduct high-level and staff dialogues and the 

exchange of technical expertise and training on key issues. For example, we launched the EU-US Joint 

Technology Competition Policy Dialogue with leaders of the Antitrust Division of the Department of 

Justice and the EU Commission, focused on shared competition enforcement and policy issues that arise 

in technology markets, with the goal of promoting policy and enforcement coordination. The FTC and 

the Antitrust Division also developed and hosted an Enforcers Summit that engaged international and 

state enforcement colleagues in discussions of merger reform and lessons for interagency collaboration, 

and helped to inform the U.S. agencies’ efforts to modernize our merger guidelines. In addition, the FTC 

worked with key counterparts through the Multilateral Pharmaceutical Merger Task Force to address 

approaches to analyzing the effects of pharmaceutical mergers, which culminated in a two-day workshop 

that covered recent research and proposals for proactive antitrust enforcement

• Building on recommendations developed in the report, “The FTC’s Role in a Changing World,” the 

Commission has deepened its work with other U.S. government agencies to address competition 

issues that implicate broader U.S. policy interests in a coordinated and effective manner. For example, 

the FTC worked the Departments of Treasury, Justice, State, and others to develop a Group of Seven 

(G7) statement on competition in the digital economy, which affirmed participants’ intent to increase 

collaboration and cooperation with other governments to address the evolving challenges of policy 

and enforcement in digital markets. In addition, the FTC, with G7 competition colleagues, developed a 

compendium of approaches to improving competition in digital markets
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 49

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective 

• Support BC’s enforcement by assisting with the international aspects of its investigations and litigation.

• Pursue opportunities for improving international cooperation tools bilaterally and multilaterally, e.g., 

through the ICN, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and UNCTAD, 

including the development of additional agreements to promote enhanced cooperation, e.g., pursuant to 

the Multilateral Mutual Assistance and Cooperation Framework.

• Enhance opportunities for the promotion of policy understanding and consistency, including as concerns 

the application of competition law to the digital economy.

• Continue the FTC’s leadership role in the ICN by: guiding the ICN’s strategic direction through Steering 

Group participation; leading the network’s promotion and implementation work; co-leading the project 

on the intersection of competition, data privacy, and consumer protection law and policy; helping advance 

work on unilateral conduct, agency effectiveness, digital markets, cooperation, mergers, and competition 

advocacy; and setting its long-term agenda by leading the ICN’s “Third Decade” project to self-assess 

plan the network’s priorities and strategies for the next decade. Strengthen relations with key partner 

competition agencies through dialogue on policy initiatives, case cooperation, and the provision of 

technical assistance.

• Facilitate dialogue and competition policy and enforcement understanding and consistency through 

engagement in additional multilateral fora including the OECD Competition Committee, UNCTAD, and 

regional organizations such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation regional economic forum.

• Restart the International Fellows and staff exchange programs and pursue technical assistance programs, 

notably regional programs in coordination with the U.S. Agency for International Development and other 

interagency funding partners. 

• Work with other U.S. agencies bilaterally and in interagency and intergovernmental fora such as the G7 

and the EU-US Technology and Trade Council, and in the development of trade arrangements to address 

appropriate competition-related issues.

Performance Metrics

Metric 2.3.1: Percentage of FTC cases involving at least one substantive contact with a foreign antitrust 

authority in which the agencies followed consistent analytical approaches and reached compatible outcomes.

OIA strives to ensure appropriate cooperation on and coordination of investigations under parallel review 

by the FTC and foreign competition agencies. This metric gauges the effectiveness of the FTC’s enforcement 

cooperation with foreign antitrust authorities pursuing parallel enforcement activities.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

98% 100% 100% 100% 100% 90% Exceeded 85% 85%

FY 2022 Highlights: In FY 2022, the FTC cooperated on 33 enforcement matters. FTC staff engaged in 

substantive case cooperation with 16 agencies, including those of Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, the 

European Union, Germany, Israel, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, and the 

United Kingdom. The FTC and its counterpart agencies reached compatible outcomes in all cases completed 

during the fiscal year. While the FTC will continue to strive for 100% success, the target reflects the possibility 

of inconsistent outcomes, particularly as additional antitrust agencies assert their jurisdiction, more agencies 

prosecute cases based on unilateral conduct theories, and competition laws and policies undergo reform.
50 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Secondary Metric 2.3.2: Percentage of full investigations in which the FTC and other U.S. federal, state, and 

local government agencies shared evidence or information that contributed to FTC law enforcement.

Due to the wide geographic impact of merger and nonmerger actions, it is important that the FTC share 

information and resources with other domestic federal, state, and local government agencies in the 

investigation and enforcement of competition cases. This metric reports the number of full merger and 

nonmerger investigations concluded in a given fiscal year that involved information sharing with domestic 

federal, state, or local government agencies.

FY 2018 Actual FY 2019 Actual FY 2020 Actual FY 2021 Actual FY 2022 Actual

52.6% 31.8% 22.2% 52% 60
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 51

Objective 2.4: Support equity for historically underserved communities through the FTC’s competition 

mission.

Goal Leaders: Director, Bureau of Competition; Director, Bureau of Economics

The FTC strives to ensure that all members of the public benefit from competition in the marketplace, 

including members of historically underserved communities that are already at a disadvantage in the American 

economy. These communities, often low-income, rural, veterans, and/or communities of color, may be more 

susceptible to the harms caused by anticompetitive conduct and mergers. Some conduct may even seek to 

deliberately exploit or prey upon the disadvantages inherent to these communities.

The FTC enforces the antitrust laws after analyzing the harms and potential remedies based on the information 

available. Continuing efforts to improve the agency’s information requests and case evaluation process will 

ensure harms to less visible groups are not going unnoticed and will enable the Commission to ensure it is 

focusing its resources on cases that promote a fair and equitable marketplace for all.

Strategies

Improve information gathering that precedes the case selection and evaluation process: Develop and refine 

information requests in merger and anticompetitive conducts cases to solicit information about the impact of 

transactions and conduct on historically underserved communities. This may include identifying communities 

within specific geographic areas that are affected and ensuring that merger analysis includes effects on workers 

and restrictive covenants. 

Further research: Conduct research to study the economic impact of anticompetitive conduct and transactions 

on consumers, workers, and small businesses in historically underserved communities.

External Factors and Risks

Resource constraints

• Financial and personnel resource limitations, driven primarily by the costs of litigation, may limit the 

number of investigations and litigations the agency can pursue, which may in turn impact the FTC’s ability 

to achieve the goals of this objective.

FY 2022 Progress Update

• Completed the agency’s Equity Action Plan to further formalize plans for achieving equity in antitrust 

enforcement

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective 

• Continue to refine data collection and analysis for new metrics.

• BC will update its case selection and evaluation process by systematically collecting available information 

regarding the impact of proposed mergers and alleged anticompetitive conduct on underserved 

communities.

• BC will ensure that merger analysis includes effects on workers and restrictive covenants.

• BC staff will continue ongoing efforts to develop—and refine—information requests (via voluntary access 

letters, second requests, and civil investigative demands) in merger and anticompetitive conduct cases to 

solicit information about the impact of transactions on underserved communities.
52 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Performance Metrics

Metric 2.4.1: Dollar value of harm from potentially anticompetitive conduct and transactions having 

an adverse economic impact on consumers, workers, and small businesses in historically underserved 

communities.

This metric reports the percentage of consumer savings and other measurable benefits applicable to 

individuals who 1) are under the federal poverty line, or who 2) identify as Black, Hispanic, American Indian/

Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander in the relevant geographic markets of concluded, 

full-phase investigations.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A

< Poverty Line: 

$343.1m

 Hispanic: 

$476.4m

Other 

Underserved 

Communities: 

$358.1m

Baseline N/A Baseline Baseline

FY 2022 Highlights: In this baseline year, the Commission’s enforcement actions to stop anticompetitive 

conduct and mergers saved traditionally underserved communities millions of dollars. Consistent with Metric 

2.1.2, the Commission’s competition enforcement actions saved the public, and more specifically, underserved 

racial/ethnic and socio-economic groups, many times the costs of the agency’s competition enforcement 

programs. 

Metric 2.4.2: Percentage of populations impacted by actions taken to maintain competition who belong to 

historically underserved communities.

This metric reports the percentage of populations who 1) are under the federal poverty line, or who 2) identify 

as Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander in the relevant 

geographic markets of concluded, full-phase investigations.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A

< Poverty Line: 

11.8% Hispanic: 

15.7% 

Other 

Underserved 

Communities: 

11.8%

Baseline N/A Baseline Baseline

FY 2022 Highlights: In this baseline year, the Commission took enforcement actions to stop anticompetitive 

conduct and mergers in markets that largely aligned with national population averages for certain historically 

underserved communities. As the Commission continues to refine its focus on disparate impact in underserved 

communities, these percentages may increase in years to come.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 53

Metric 2.4.3: Percentage of actions taken to maintain competition where the merger or conduct was identified 

as adversely impacting historically underserved communities.

This metric reports the percentage of full-phase investigations concluded with an action for which staff 

identified a potentially adverse impact on one or more historically underserved communities during the course 

of its investigation.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 25% Baseline N/A Baseline Baseline

FY 2022 Highlights: This metric recognizes that harm to underserved communities, while challenging to 

quantify, is cognizable and significant. In FY 2022, staff identified a likely adverse impact on one or more 

historically underserved communities in five of the 20 full-phase investigations concluded with an enforcement 

action. As the Commission continues to refine its focus on disparate impact in underserved communities, this 

percentage may increase in years to come.
54 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Strategic Goal 3: Advance the FTC’s Effectiveness and Performance

The FTC believes that advancing organizational effectiveness and performance at all levels creates a strong 

foundation for overall mission success. The agency’s work in Strategic Goal 3 highlights ongoing efforts to 

improve the management of agency staffing, finances, information, and physical assets, in order to create a 

more efficient and more agile agency.

Three objectives guide work in this area:

• Objective 3.1: Optimize resource management, space, and administrative programs.

• Objective 3.2: Cultivate a high performing, diverse, inclusive, and engaged workforce.

• Objective 3.3: Optimize information management.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 55

Strategic Goal 3 Metrics FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

Objective 3.1

Metric 3.1.1 Audit opinion from the agency’s 

independent financial statement auditors.

Unmodified 

opinion

Unmodified 

opinion

Unmodified 

opinion

Unmodified 

opinion

Unmodified 

opinion

Unmodified 

opinion

Metric 3.1.2 Percentage of contract actions awarded 

within FTC’s established procurement action lead 

time.

91.1% 94.5% 90.6% 90.0% 90.0% 90.0

Metric 3.1.3 Percentage of contract dollars awarded 

to small disadvantaged businesses. 15.4% 18.1% 15.5% 15.0% 15.0% 15.0

Metric 3.1.4 Number of training and information 

offerings to staff on climate literacy and resilience 

topics.

N/A N/A 4 Baseline 4 4

Objective 3.2

Metric 3.2.1 Annual score on the FEVS Employee 

Engagement Index. 87% 74% 74% 77%

Exceed 

governmentwide average

Exceed 

governmentwide average

Metric 3.2.2 Annual score on the FEVS Global 

Satisfaction Index. 89% 60% 62% 65%

Exceed 

governmentwide average

Exceed 

governmentwide average

Metric 3.2.3 Annual score on the FTC Diversity and 

Inclusion Index. N/A N/A 85% Baseline

Exceed 

governmentwide average

Exceed 

governmentwide average

Metric 3.2.4 Percentage of people with disabilities in 

the FTC workforce. 8.0% 7.4% 8.7% 7.5%

Equal or 

greater 

than 

previous FY

Equal or 

greater 

than 

previous FY

Metric 3.2.5 Percentage of people with targeted 

disabilities in the FTC workforce. 1.3% 1.4% 1.4% 1.

Equal or 

greater 

than 

previous FY

Equal or 

greater 

than 

previous FY
56 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Strategic Goal 3 Metrics FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

Objective 3.3

Metric 3.3.1 Percentage of FTC IT systems hosted 

outside of the FTC’s data center. N/A N/A 90.0% 90.0% 90.0% 90.0%

Metric 3.3.2 Availability of information technology 

systems. 99.97% 99.94% 99.67% 99.50% 99.50% 99.50%

Metric 3.3.3 Annual score on the FTC Cybersecurity 

Index. 7 of 8 6 of 8 7 of 8 6 of 8 Baseline (new Index) TBD

Metric 3.3.4 Meet project milestones for developing 

an agency email records schedule and associated 

email capture and management process.

N/A N/A

Email 

records 

schedule 

and policy 

drafted

Draft agencywide policy 

regarding 

email and 

implement 

agency-wide 

training 

on email 

management

Submit email 

records 

schedule to 

NARA for 

approval

Complete 

evaluation 

of FTC email 

management 

practices

Metric 3.3.5 Meet project milestones for developing 

and implementing an agency wide approach for 

managing Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

N/A N/A

Processes for 

safeguarding, 

decontrolling, 

and 

destroying 

CUI finalized

Implement 

agency-wide 

physical 

safeguarding 

decontrolling 

and 

destruction 

process for 

CUI

Implement 

marking of 

information 

agency-wide 

and launch 

agency-wide 

training

Conduct CUI 

program 

evaluation for 

DC offices
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 57

Objective 3.1: Optimize resource management and infrastructure.

Goal Leader: Executive Director, Office of the Executive Director

The creation, modernization, and maintenance of physical and financial resources and infrastructure not only 

provides for a safe, secure, and efficient workplace but also helps the agency achieve its mission and respond 

to and anticipate future needs. These efforts span several offices and functions. 

The safety and security of the workforce is of paramount importance, and the FTC must ensure that mission 

essential work can be completed in normal and adverse conditions. The work in this area covers emergency 

preparedness, space and administrative operations, and climate action planning and mitigation that will limit 

the agency’s climate impact wherever possible. 

The FTC believes in the importance of accountability and transparency, as shown through resource stewardship 

and financial oversight. The work in this area covers a wide range of administrative and operational activities, 

such as formulating and executing the agency budget, managing procurements, internal controls, accounting 

operations, audit resolution, and ensuring compliance with financial management laws and regulations.

Strategies 

• Increase emergency and climate readiness: Enhance emergency and climate readiness and resilience, 

including the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions; withstand, respond 

to, and recover rapidly from climate related disruptions by updating our facility emergency plans and 

reviewing our Continuity of Operations plan annually. Update all emergency plans to reflect climate 

impacts of particular geographic locations over the next four years. 

• Improve agency climate literacy: Develop an internal communications plan focused on 1) enhancing FTC 

employees’ understanding of how climate change impacts the FTC and 2) promoting educational resources 

and opportunities for those employees where an understanding of climate resilience or climate change is 

integral to their work, particularly those responsible for managing the FTC’s infrastructure. 

• Improve availability of agency financial data: Leverage Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI) reporting 

functions to create and deploy tools such as interactive dashboards, alerts and visual analytics to advance 

more informed and timely management decisions, especially those related to budget execution and the 

availability of funds. Format and align financial data with users’ needs to support sound decisions related 

to accomplishing the agency’s consumer protection and competition missions. 

• Enhance overall agency financial management: Develop capabilities obtained through the integration of 

the FTC financial system and OBI. Maximize our ability to perform more targeted analytics that assess the 

effectiveness and efficiency of our financial management operations. Conduct a systematic review of a

financial processes to ensure we are being both efficient and effective. Collaborate with the Departmen

of the Treasury to implement G-invoicing, a long-term sustainable solution to improve the quality of the 

agency’s Intragovernmental Transactions. 

• Enhance agency procurement: Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of procurement-related work. 

Strive to maintain the proper level of staff and resources to complete procurements on time. Develop 

the necessary policies and procedures and adherence to those processes that ensure proper oversight 

and management of contracts. Provide additional training to agency Contracting Officers and Acquisition 

support staff on the agency’s contract writing system.

External Factors and Risks 

Changes in government requirements for financial management

• Changes to federal financial management regulations, including acquisition regulations, can lead to 

unexpected shifts in priorities or work processes. If consequently, contract processing slows down, needed 
58 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

equipment, supplies, and services, including expert witnesses for litigation, may be delayed, slowing down 

mission critical work. 

FY 2022 Progress Update 

Security / Emergency Preparedness

• The FTC completed the Eagle Horizon Continuity of Operations exercise and developed an after-action 

report to address identified improvement areas during the training.

• The FTC implemented a new visitor process based on OMB guidelines for Agency Model Safety Principles 

during the COVID-19 pandemic. The visitor process details FTC safety protocols on health screening and 

COVID-19 vaccination attestation and testing requirements.

• The FTC completed an Active Shooter Education campaign to elevate awareness of steps FTC staff can take 

to keep themselves safe during an active shooter incident.

• The FTC’s Pandemic Response Team implemented a notification process to alert FTC staff and visitors of 

face mask requirements based on the COVID-19 Community Level reported by the CDC to further the 

health and safety within FTC facilities. The FTC also published an updated the COVID-19 Safety Plan to FTC.

gov.

Facilities

• The FTC completed upgrades of its headquarters elevator switchgear, which allows all elevators to return 

to the ground floor using emergency power during an emergency or power outage event.

• The FTC replaced all fluorescent light bulbs with LED bulbs for safety and sustainability in the FTC 

headquarters building.

• The FTC relocated its San Francisco Regional Office to a federal facility.

• The FTC reinstated shuttle services between its headquarters and satellite building using a smaller ADAcompliant vehicle.

Finance

• The FTC’s Enterprise Risk Management program continues to ensure that internal controls are achieving 

their intended objectives supporting effective and efficient programmatic operations, reliable financial 

reporting, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. FMO identified, assessed, and monitored 

risks related to mission performance and updated the agency risk profile. The risk-management efforts 

helped agency leadership determine where to apply resources to address the FTC’s highest priorities and 

risks.

• The agency made progress towards paperless procurement and automated reporting of acquisition 

activities through more comprehensive use of our financial reporting tool, Oracle Business Intelligence. 

Our transition to an electronic procurement file management system was delayed by the pandemic. The 

FTC is still exploring options in this area. 

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective

• Complete the review of Occupant Emergency Plans and establish a schedule to incorporate climate 

impacts into these plans over the coming four years.

• Convene a working group to establish an agency-wide plan to analyze climate impacts on the agency and 

the agency’s current climate impact to identify climate adaptation and impact reduction strategies. 

• Deliver targeted messaging and informational training to increase staff awareness on climate resiliency 

and adaptation.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 59

• Enhance collection development procedures to ensure ongoing evaluation of electronic subscriptions as 

the agency explores a hybrid work environment.

• Pursue certification for its contracting officers to the new FAC-C-IT standard required to sign IT contracts in 

the future

• Pursue greater use of OBI financial dashboards, particularly to assist acquisitions in tracking PALT and 

other contracting metrics.

• Continue corrective actions on supply chain risk management.

• Complete gathering requirements for its Micro Program of Requirements to submit to General Services 

Administration as the next step in the process to procure new space to replace the FTC’s satellite building 

in Washington D.C.

• Continue to support efforts to monitor and update the agency risk profile and risk registers to highlight 

and help agency leadership manage the most significant risks and analyze areas of concern that may 

elevate to a significant risk in the future.

Performance Metrics

Metric 3.1.1: Audit opinion from the agency’s independent financial statement auditors.

FTC management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of annual financial statements 

in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. As required by law, the FTC’s financial 

statements are audited annually by independent auditors. The auditors will determine whether the annual 

financial statements and related notes present fairly, in all material respects, the assets, liabilities, and net 

position in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The ideal outcome is an unmodified 

opinion. Potential negative outcomes include a qualified or adverse opinion, or a disclaimer from opinion.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

Unmodified 

Opinion

Unmodified 

opinion

Unmodified 

Opinion

Unmodified 

opinion

Unmodified 

Opinion Met Unmodified opinion

Unmodified 

opinion Baseline

FY 2022 Highlights: The FTC takes very seriously our commitment of responsible stewardship of the public 

resources entrusted to us by the American taxpayers and Congress. The agency’s FY 2022 independent 

financial audit yielded our 26th consecutive unmodified opinion, the highest audit opinion available. The 

independent auditors did not identify any material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, or instances of noncompliance with internal controls, financial systems, or laws and regulations. 

Metric 3.1.2: Percentage of contract actions awarded within FTC’s established Procurement Action Lead Time 

(PALT).

The agency’s Acquisitions Branch engages in the time-intensive process of awarding government contracts, 

task orders, and modifications. To measure the efficiency of this work, this metric tracks the percentage 

of contract actions awarded within established lead times. The lead-time varies depending on the type of 

contract. Timely awarding of contracts is important to keep mission work moving forward.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A* N/A* 91.1%* 94.5%* 90.6% 90.0% Exceeded 90.0% 90.0%

*Results for previous fiscal years have changed slightly from what was reported in the previous APR/APP as the FTC has moved to measuring only 

new contract awards in this metric, excluding contract modifications. This helps focus the metric on the awards that take the most time and are 

more at risk to encounter delays.
60 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Metric 3.1.3: Percentage of contract dollars awarded to small disadvantaged businesses.

The federal government strives to ensure small businesses are capable of winning federal contracts, not just 

large corporations. The FTC typically awards over $80 million in contracts each year to private companies 

for supplies and services needed to complete our work. This metric tracks the percentage of FTC contract 

dollars that are awarded to companies that classify as small (as measured in annual receipts and number 

of employees) and disadvantaged (owned by persons who are socially and economically disadvantaged), as 

classified by the Small Business Administration.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

16.7% 11.7% 15.4% 18.1% 15.5% 15.0% Exceeded 15.0% 15.0

Metric 3.1.4: Number of training and information offerings to staff on climate literacy and resilience topics.

The FTC’s Climate Action Plan, established in FY 2021, calls for enhancing FTC employees’ understanding 

of how climate change impacts the FTC and to promote educational resources and opportunities for those 

employees where an understanding of climate resilience or climate change is integral to their work. The FTC 

launched a series of voluntary activities and will track training, educational products, and related activities. 

OCASO’s Communications and Information Management branch is responsible for implementing FTC’s Climate 

Adaptation Action regarding improving climate literacy.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 4 Baseline N/A 4 4

FY 2022 Highlights: During the baseline year of this performance metric, the FTC used Office of the Federal 

Chief Sustainability Officer resources to provide climate-related training opportunities for interested FTC staff 

to improve their understanding of climate resilience and climate change. The FTC has begun implementing 

provisions like zero-emissions fleet vehicles. The FTC designated a Chief Sustainability Officer to oversee 

selected provisions and government-wide sustainability initiatives.

Secondary Metric 3.1.5: Number of FOIA Requests Received, Processed, and the Cost of FOIA Litigation

This metric tracks the number of incoming Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the number of 

requests processed by the FTC’s FOIA team, and the cost of litigation related to FOIA requests. While the 

number of incoming FOIA requests is out of our control, the FOIA team strives to respond to each request 

within statutory deadlines.

FY 2018 Actual FY 2019 Actual FY 2020 Actual FY 2021 Actual FY 2022 Actual

Number of FOIA 

Requests Received 1441 1381 1177 1385 1619

Number of FOIA 

Requests Processed 1459 1361 1298 1375 1579

Cost of FOIA 

Litigation $33,848 $22,988 $102,489 $166,155 $348,178
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 61

Objective 3.2: Cultivate a high-performing, diverse, inclusive, and engaged workforce.

Goal Leaders: Executive Director, Office of the Executive Director; Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection; 

Director, Bureau of Competition; Director, Bureau of Economics; General Counsel, Office of the General 

Counsel; Director, Office of EEOWI

The FTC’s workforce is its greatest asset. The FTC will focus on recruiting, developing, motivating, and retaining 

a high-performing, diverse, inclusive, and engaged workforce as the FTC advances organizational performance. 

Having a workforce that looks like and draws from the public it protects strengthens the FTC’s ability to meet 

its mission. 

Continuous learning is a foundation of our training efforts. FTC staff needs to be aware of new developments in 

the marketplace and be agile enough to adjust to changing developments. A focus on training, including crosstraining staff on both consumer protection and competition issues, will ensure the FTC is ready to accomplish 

its dual mission. 

This objective also captures efforts to ensure that all workers are competing on a fair and level playing field and 

that all have the opportunity to achieve their utmost potential.

Strategies

• Improve recruitment: Explore use of expanded workplace flexibilities to improve recruitment. Expand 

hiring at regional offices. Place a stronger emphasis on targeted recruitment efforts across the diversity 

spectrum to expand our applicant pools. Increase the FTC’s presence at job fairs and other events 

designed for specific job seekers (e.g., racial minorities, veterans, persons with disabilities, members of the 

LGBTQIA+ community and women attorneys and law students, etc.).

• Expand staff skillsets: In addition to attorneys and economists, the FTC seeks to hire technologists, data 

analysts, financial analysts, business analysts, child psychologists, youth development experts, bilingual 

and multilingual staff, and experts from other outside disciplines. This will allow the agency to build on 

existing talent and position the FTC to analyze conduct, assess harms and remedies, and pursue market 

studies with an interdisciplinary approach.

• Cross-train staff to develop a more flexible workforce: Increase agency agility and flexibility by training 

staff in both of our mission areas (consumer protection and competition). Provide education and 

training opportunities that support our workforce’s varied demographic backgrounds, experiences, and 

perspectives at all levels and occupations.

• Support performance management and accountability: Support an agency-wide performance culture 

that focuses on individual and organizational accountability while meeting established agency goals. 

Reinforce the FTC’s programmatic priorities and objectives using a robust system governing performance 

management. Provide opportunities for employee recognition that reinforce FTC values and culture while 

improving engagement and productivity.

• Develop leaders: Recruit and develop strategic and forward-thinking leaders who are agile, motivated, and 

knowledgeable and who can position the FTC for success. Strengthen leadership in a way that embraces 

an agency-wide approach to supporting a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforce. Support leaders and 

future leaders who provide effective direction, inspiration, and guidance in nurturing the strengths and 

talents of the workforce through building teams committed to achieving FTC goals.
62 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

External Factors and Risks 

Current job market impacts

• Strong job markets have led talented staff to seek more lucrative opportunities at higher-paying agencies 

or in the private sector.

• External talent may be hesitant to seek new employment opportunities due to the impact of COVID-19 on 

work conditions (possible exposure, lack of information on remote work flexibilities, etc.).

• Workplace flexibilities may be a key factor for job seekers.

Changes to government requirements for human capital management 

• Changes to federal human capital regulations, legal authorities, mandates, and requirements may affect 

the ability of the FTC to implement specific human capital strategies related to recruitment, training, and 

retention.

Availability of cost-effective external training sources

• Cost-effective external training resources may not be available to supplement and expand the agency’s 

internal employee development and training opportunities.

FY 2022 Progress Update

• Leveraging workplace flexibilities to enhance recruitment and retention of employees: In FY 2022, the 

FTC finalized a next phase policy that provides a framework for the management and operation of FTC 

workplace flexibilities programs. Workplace flexibilities, such as telework, remote work, and alternative 

work schedules, can be used efficiently and effectively as strategic management tools for attracting, 

retaining, and engaging talent to accomplish the agency’s mission and for advancing diversity, equity, 

inclusion, and accessibility within the FTC workforce. The policy is designed to offer robust workplace 

flexibilities to agency staff while maintaining a physical workplace that serves as a hub of connection and 

community. High quality performance and achievement can be maintained in a hybrid environment while 

underscoring the value of coming together in-person to collaborate, learn, mentor, and build relationships.

The policy reinforces the agency’s commitment to building a successful, sustainable, collaborative, agile, 

and innovative hybrid workplace environment that embraces the work-life balance and wellbeing of 

FTC employees, positioning them to work at their best in service of the agency’s mission. The policy is 

designed to achieve fair and equitable implementation of covered programs across the agency and provide 

Bureaus and Offices sufficient flexibility to make individualized workforce and workplace decisions that are 

critical to advancing the FTC mission.

• Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Workplace Inclusion (EEOWI): The FTC’s Office of EEOWI 

continued its long-standing partnerships with employees and senior officials across the agency regarding 

diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. FTC employees and senior officials have an ongoing presence 

in many agency groups, committees, and task forces that focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and 

accessibility in the contexts of the FTC’s workforce and the programmatic services that the FTC provides 

to the public. For example, FTC employees and senior officials are present on, and actively participate in, 

the FTC’s Taskforce on Equity. The FTC also benefited from several events and activities that were planned 

and presented by the FTC Diversity Council, the FTC Women’s Employee Resource Group, and the Pride 

Employee Resource Group.

• Training and Employee Development: The FTC continued to focus on FTC’s learning culture through 

upskilling and leadership development courses supporting the advancement of employee skillsets. 

Specifically, courses offered for upskilling was provided by West Legal Ed Center offering continuing legal 

education for attorneys, and a series of desktop application classes was provided focusing on advancing 
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 63

technical skills for all employees for Microsoft and Adobe applications. Franklin Covey courses were 

offered to FTC employees expanding the leadership capacity for leaders within the organization; FTC 

Leadership Academy was conducted and provided leadership development for team leads, typically at the 

GS-13 and 14 levels focusing on the agency’s emerging leaders; and an Executive Leadership Development 

Program was developed for Senior Executive Service and GS-15 employees to equip executive leaders with 

cutting-edge leadership tools to apply to strategic decision-making, launching in the first quarter for FY23.

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective

• Support agency efforts to promote and encourage diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

• Develop an agency-wide workforce plan and implement an integrated workforce planning process that 

supports succession planning within HCMO and other FTC Bureaus and Offices.

• Integrate an HR Service Center with existing FTC Service Now platform. This will enable FTC staff to initiate 

HC service requests an, research answers to frequently asked questions on the same platform used for 

technical support requests and queries.

• Utilize Microsoft Power Business Intelligence and other data analysis tools to create dynamic reports to 

inform the agency’s workforce planning and decision-making processes.

• Improve the integrity of human capital data through periodic reviews to provide reliable, accurate, datadriven insights to the FTC’s leadership team.

• Continue to improve the candidate-selection recruitment timeline through business process 

re-engineering.

• Partner with hiring managers to deploy recruitment and outreach strategies to attract a diverse workforce, 

including utilizing the Schedule A hiring authority to increase the representation rate of people with 

disabilities, and using Veteran’s Recruitment Appointment and other hiring authorities to increase the 

representation of veterans at the agency to support diversity and encourage inclusion.

• Promote and expand the use of federal compensation flexibilities, such as recruitment, retention and 

relocation incentives, superior qualifications/special needs pay setting, student loan repayments, and 

other human resources flexibilities such as telework, reasonable accommodation, and wellness programs 

that support employee retention and recruitment.

• Provide new managers with the training, skills, and resources to process reasonable accommodation 

requests correctly and foster an inclusive environment. 

• Update internal Standard Operating Procedures to ensure the standardization and consistency of HCMO’s 

operating processes and procedures.
64 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Performance Metrics

Metric 3.2.1: Annual score on the FEVS Employee Engagement Index

This metric tracks the Employee Engagement Index of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS), an 

annual survey of federal employees conducted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The index 

gauges the extent to which employees believe that management listens and provides meaningful support and 

feedback in various areas that assist staff in supporting the overall mission of the agency. The index is based on 

FEVS questions that assess three sub-factors: perceptions of agency leadership, relationships between workers 

and supervisors, and feelings of motivation and competency.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

83% 84% 87% 74% 74% 77% Not Met

Exceed 

governmentwide average

Exceed 

governmentwide average

FY 2022 Highlights: The FTC’s Employee Engagement Index score remained steady at 74%, which is above the 

government-wide average of 71%, but below the medium-size agency average of 76%.

Metric 3.2.2: Annual score on the FEVS Global Satisfaction Index

This metric tracks the FEVS Global Satisfaction Index. Measuring the overall job satisfaction of FTC employees 

provides managers with important information regarding employees’ general satisfaction with their 

organization and the work they do. Overall job satisfaction is closely correlated with employee retention.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

85% 84% 89% 60% 62% 65% Not Met

Exceed 

governmentwide average

Exceed 

governmentwide average

FY 2022 Highlights: The FTC’s Global Satisfaction Index score was up 2% to 62%, which is equal to the 

government-wide average of 62%, but below the medium-size agency average of 69%.

Metric 3.2.3: Annual score on the FTC Diversity and Inclusion Index.

This metric tracks the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Index of the Federal Employee 

Viewpoint Survey (FEVS). This new index was established by OPM in 2022 to measure diversity, equity, 

inclusion, and accessibility in the workforce.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 85% Baseline N/A

Exceed 

governmentwide average

Exceed 

governmentwide average

FY 2022 Highlights: As this is a new index in the 2022 FEVS, there is no historical data to compare. For FY 2022, 

FTC FEVS score was significantly higher than medium-size agency average (75%) and government-wide average 

(69%). The FTC score was the highest for all medium-size agencies
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 65

Metric 3.2.4: Percentage of people with disabilities in the FTC workforce.

Each agency in the Executive Branch of the federal government has established programs to facilitate the 

hiring, placement, and advancement of individuals with disabilities. Calculation of the percentage of people 

with targeted disabilities in the FTC workforce allows the agency to track the success of these programs. This 

metric shows the FTC’s progress toward the U.S. Equal Employment Commission’s (EEOC) target for federal 

agencies to have 12% of a federal agency’s workforce be persons with disabilities, and 2% of a federal agency’s 

workforce be persons with targeted disabilities.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

6.4% 8.1% 8.0% 8.7%* 8.7% 7.5% Exceeded

Equal or 

greater than 

previous FY

Equal or 

greater than 

previous FY

* The FY 2021 Actual was misreported as 7.4% in the previous Annual Performance Plan.

Metric 3.2.5: Percentage of people with targeted disabilities in the FTC workforce.

Each agency in the Executive Branch of the federal government has established programs to facilitate the 

hiring, placement, and advancement of individuals with disabilities. Calculation of the percentage of people 

with targeted disabilities in the FTC workforce allows the agency to track the success of these programs. 

Self-identification of targeted disability status is essential for effective data collection and analysis of the FTC’s 

efforts. While self-identification is voluntary, employee cooperation in providing accurate information is critical 

to these efforts. Every precaution is taken to ensure that the information provided by each employee is kept in 

the strictest confidence. 

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

1.7% 1.4% 1.3% 1.4% 1.4% 1.5% Not M

Equal or 

greater than 

previous FY

Equal or 

greater than 

previous FY

Secondary Metric 3.2.6: Average number of days from job vacancy closing to making a tentative offer for new 

hires.

This metric tracks the average number of days from job vacancy closing to making a tentative offer for new 

hires. Performing the hiring process in a timely manner enables the FTC to continue to meet its mission by 

filling vacant positions with qualified persons as quickly as possible. Making timely hiring decisions increases 

the likelihood that the agency will be able to recruit qualified, top candidates.

FY 2018 Actual FY 2019 Actual FY 2020 Actual FY 2021 Actual FY 2022 Actual

N/A 60 days 47.8 days 51.1 days 57 days
66 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Objective 3.3 Optimize information management.

Goal Leader: Executive Director, Office of the Executive Director; Secretary, Office of the Secretary

Successful accomplishment of the FTC mission is increasingly dependent on IT systems and services. FTC staff 

relies on the agency’s IT systems to manage the high volume of information gathered as part of the agency’s 

mission, and to comply with mandates concerning the preservation and handling of agency records. The FTC 

must invest in IT services that will improve the user experience, allowing the agency to manage increasing data 

volumes effectively while meeting regulatory obligations. 

The FTC’s Information Resource Management (IRM) Strategic Plan establishes a multi-year plan for 

modernizing FTC’s IT capabilities, eliminating outdated systems, and using cloud-based solutions when 

practical. By properly assessing the future IT landscape, FTC can take advantage of emerging IT services while 

ensuring a clear focus on mission objectives. 

The FTC is also committed to effective and efficient management of information resources and continues 

its transition to managing information electronically to enable staff to perform their work more efficiently, 

facilitate public access, and protect sensitive information from inappropriate access. 

The FTC must continue to address the challenges of a constantly evolving cyber security landscape. 

Information and information systems must be protected from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, 

modification, or destruction in order to ensure data integrity, confidentiality, and availability in the face of 

increasing cyber threats.

Strategies

• Modernize technology: Transform and modernize information technology resources, using innovative 

approaches and best practices, to increase functionality, improve performance, and achieve mission 

success. Support transformation and modernization that includes architecting applications and services on 

cloud-based technology platforms, upgrading and replacing end of support infrastructure and endpoints, 

and increasing the use of automation in business processes and IT management.

• Protect FTC data: Secure and protect information and technology resources from attack and loss of data, 

accessibility, or integrity, whether from external malicious actors or insider threats. Ensure data and 

information of all kinds are secure through use of secure authentication practices, implementation of a 

zero-trust security architecture, and monitoring of systems, services, and user behavior.

• Bring FTC in compliance with federal records requirements: Comply with federal records requirements 

by developing an agency email records schedule and an associated email capture and management 

process, which will allow identification and retention of email records and to associate emails with specific 

cases or matters. Additionally, implement an agency-wide program, for managing controlled unclassified 

information (CUI), starting with a standard method for marking documents and emails containing CUI, 

and reinforcing the importance of information management through training, electronic and physical 

safeguarding, and other procedures.

• Multi-disciplinary collaboration: Using modern technology with effective controls for the protection and 

control of data and information, remove organizational barriers to collaboration so agency leaders can 

assign skilled resources to areas of most need in a way that imbues multi-disciplinary critical thinking into 

all aspects of agency law enforcement.
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 67

External Factors and Risks 

• Rate of change in the information technology industry

• If information technology providers release new products and features too quickly, the FTC may lag in 

technology implementation, increasing the likelihood of using obsolete or unsupported technologies.

• New technologies may present unique information security challenges or require creative solutions to 

securing the system without affecting user experience. 

• Emerging and unforeseen information security threats and malicious actors

• Evolving information security threats affect the security of individual IT systems and services and the 

FTC’s overall risk posture.

• Stringent requirements for information security related to cloud systems may increase costs.

• New federal mandates and guidance on information security and IT management create new and 

unexpected challenges.

• Downward pressure in IT spending across the federal government

• Resources with skills needed to support emerging information security challenges and technologies are 

drawn to agencies and organizations with higher paying positions and benefits.

• Downward pressure on federal spending could lead to limited funding/reduced resources available for 

significant upfront investments needed for IT modernization efforts.

• Increased staff telework

• Increased number of staff teleworking could have an impact on the architectural design and 

performance of FTC’s IT network.

• Compliance with Records Management Directives

• Potential delay in transition of electronic records could occur due to dependence on approved records 

schedules that the FTC is in the process of updating.

• FTC’s IT infrastructure modernization may delay identifying the best solution for the agency.

• Resource Constraints

• Constraints on personnel and funding may limit resources available to implement records retention 

schedules or develop agency-wide training and may hinder efforts to audit compliance with policies.

• Limited availability of National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) staff may delay approval of 

email records schedule.

• Inflexible Policies and Procedures

• As the FTC modernizes IT systems and increases the use of shared and cloud-based services, agency 

policies and procedures regarding records management, privacy, information security, and risk 

management may not align with technology and best practices for modernized digital services, causing 

delays in deployment, increased level of effort, and customer dissatisfaction if expected functionality is 

not available.

• Traditional methods of contracting for IT services may hinder the FTC’s ability to leverage agile 

development methods and promote creativity and innovation amongst contractors.
68 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

FY 2022 Progress Update 

• The FTC advanced toward a next-generation Zero Trust Network Architecture. This modernized 

architecture includes the migration to a new managed communications service, software-defined widearea network (SD-WAN), and cloud-based secure gateway for remote employee access. These new 

technologies are designed to improve performance and user experience, while simultaneously enhancing 

the agency’s information security profile and reducing overall IT costs and complexity.

• The FTC expanded the use of the Microsoft 365 office productivity suite to include the use of SharePoint 

Online, Teams, OneDrive, and Intune to enhance employee communication and collaboration in a hybrid 

workplace. 

• The FTC awarded new contracts and task orders to address new and expanding requirements for 

information governance, identity and access management, endpoint security, and cloud application 

modernization. These contracts were awarded using flexible structures that allow for growth or changes in 

FTC’s needs over time. 

• The FTC deployed a pilot project to utilize cloud-based big data analytical tools to support the Bureau of 

Economics with statistical analysis of large, complex data sets for FTC investigations. This new technology 

will allow the bureau to process and analyze data faster, with access to machine learning and other 

advanced tool sets without the constraints of physical infrastructure.

• The FTC deployed a vulnerability disclosure platform (VDP) leveraging CISA’s VDP shared services vehicle. 

This platform will improve the security of FTC’s public-facing services by leveraging a community of tens 

of thousands of cybersecurity experts and researchers to report on potential vulnerabilities impacting FTC 

services. 

• The FTC expanded the use of the cloud-based Relativity eDiscovery legal review platform to include 

processing of unstructured data formats such as social media, messaging and collaboration, and audio/

video files and data using advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. This allows the 

FTC’s case teams to process newer forms of electronically stored information without the constraints of 

physical infrastructure. 

• The FTC deployed a managed operations monitoring solution to provide proactive monitoring of 

infrastructure resources, including compute, application, and network resources to mitigate the impact of 

latency and performance challenges before users are impacted and provide better data on infrastructure 

performance

• The agency drafted a role-based email records schedule for NARA review and appraisal and finalized a 

policy on the use of electronically stored information.

• The agency updated its annual privacy and security training to include training on email and records 

management

• The agency finalized processes for the safeguarding, decontrolling, and destruction of CUI.

FY 2023 Next Steps and Future Actions to Meet Strategic Objective

• Continue the move toward a Zero Trust Network Architecture, in accordance with the OMB Memorandum 

22-09 (Federal Zero Trust Strategy), including the optimization of the FTC’s remote access and identity 

management platforms and strengthening of privileged access management and vulnerability 

management practices.

• Implement an electronic filing system for the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Premerger Filing process. The HSR 

electronic filing system will streamline the process for both FTC staff and public stakeholders. The system 
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 69

will automate and digitize the current manual process for submitting complex and voluminous filings for 

external parties preparing to merge or acquire.

• Begin the deployment of a centralized security operations center (SOC) through the award of a SOC as a 

Service contract vehicle. The SOC will provide security monitoring tools and specialized skills needed to 

analyze log data across FTC IT resources, using advanced AI and machine learning, to proactively detect 

and mitigate security incidents.

• Roll out an automated onboarding/offboarding application, known as OCHO, to process personnel 

onboarding, moves, changes, and offboarding across multiple FTC organizations.

• Migrate FTC production file shares to a cloud-based infrastructure environment to remove dependencies 

for mission-critical case data and file storage on the FTC data center and improve resiliency.

• Roll out agency-wide training on best practices for email records management, including separate training 

for Commissioners and other senior officials. 

• Launch agency-wide training on marking, safeguarding, decontrolling, and destruction of CUI.

• Begin the use of O365 sensitivity labels to designate information containing CUI.

• Deploy new conferencing, communications, and collaboration tools to support a hybrid workplace.

Performance Metrics

Metric 3.3.1: Percentage of FTC IT systems hosted outside of the FTC’s data center.

The FTC intends to move most of its information systems and services to externally hosted environments to 

comply with Federal requirements for migrating to cloud solutions and away from in-house data centers and 

improve availability, performance, and security. This metric tracks the number of systems hosted outside the 

FTC’s Enterprise Data Center.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A 90.0% 90.0% Met 90.0% 90.0%

FY 2022 Highlights: As new requirements emerge, FTC will continue to prioritize the use of cloud services to 

meet technology needs. In FY 2023 and FY 2024, FTC does not anticipate any major increase in the number 

of cloud systems in use as the agency is focusing on utilizing available capabilities in existing cloud services to 

meet changing business needs. 
70 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Metric 3.3.2: Availability of information technology systems.

Information technology systems must be available and accessible to support the FTC mission. Lack of 

availability and accessibility severely constrains employees’ and managers’ ability to serve the public and 

stakeholders. This metric tracks service outages and monitors the uptime of 11 critical information technology 

services, as well as the agency’s infrastructure backbone, including:

• Email

• FTC-specific applications and systems

• Wireless services

• Internet

• Intranet

• Phone and Voicemail

• Wide Area Network

• Litigation support applications and systems

• Economic support systems

• Remote employee access

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

99.71% 99.98% 99.97% 99.94% 99.67% 99.50% Exceeded 99.50% 99.50%

FY 2022 Highlights: The FY 2022 result of 99.67% represents a decrease in overall system availability from 

the previous years. This decrease in availability is directly related to the implementation of new technologies 

and challenges the agency has faced in integrating legacy applications with a modernized networking 

infrastructure, causing outages and service degradation. Some of these legacy applications are often owned 

and operated by external parties, such as commercial organizations and other Federal agencies, which presents 

challenges for FTC as the agency has limited control over the configurations and technologies. During FY 2023, 

FTC will review lessons learned from these outages and implement projects to optimize network configurations 

with the goal of improving availability and performance for all user-facing applications and services. 
Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024 71

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

3 of 8 6 of 8 7 of 8 6 of 8 7 of 8 6 of 8 Exceeded Baseline 

(New Index) TBD

FY 2022 Highlights: Fiscal year 2022 presented significant challenges managing GFE remotely with FTC 

transitioning to new hybrid work scenarios while also working through new requirements from NIST, OMB, 

and DHS. Despite these challenges, the FTC was still able to meet targets for scanning, patching applications, 

servers, network equipment and GFE workstations, ensuring systems and services are secured through 

multifactor authentication, and ensuring compliance with Executive Orders and Binding Operational Directives. 

In fiscal year 2023, FTC will be testing new metrics for the cybersecurity index that will better align with zero 

trust security practices and government-wide cyber maturity models.

Metric 3.3.3: Annual score on the FTC Cybersecurity Index.

This metric monitors the agency’s progress in achieving multiple critical cybersecurity metrics, each of which 

measures the agency’s cybersecurity posture and strength in protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and 

availability of information systems. The cybersecurity metrics that go into this Index are:

• % major system internal users using phishing resistant authenticators 

• % total of major systems where the desired state host inventory matches the actual state host inventory 

• % government-furnished equipment (GFE) host listed in the desired state host:

• Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) software inventory matching the actual state host EDR 

software inventory

• Application Control inventory matching the actual state host Application Control software inventory

• Zero Trust Private Access (ZPA) software inventory matching the actual state host ZPA software 

inventory

• Data Loss Detection or Prevention (DLD or DLP) software inventory matching the actual state host DLD/

DLP software inventory

• credential vulnerability scan inventory matching the actual state host credential vulnerability scan 

inventory

• log forwarding inventory matching the actual state host log forwarding inventory
72 Annual Performance Report for FY 2022 and Annual Performance Plan for FYs 2023 and 2024

Metric 3.3.4: Meet milestones for developing an agency email records schedule and associated email capture 

and management process.

As most recently articulated in OMB Memorandum M-19-21, Transition to a Fully Electronic Government, 

federal agencies are required to move towards electronic information resource management and electronic 

recordkeeping. Various reviews of our internal processes have identified email management and records 

schedules as significant weaknesses in the FTC’s records management program. Staff is working on the 

development of an email records schedule and associated process to capture and identify email records and 

dispose of these records in accordance with the appropriate retention schedule. This metric tracks progress on 

this important project.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A

Email 

records 

schedule 

and policy 

drafted

Draft agencywide policy 

regarding 

email and 

implement 

agency-wide 

training 

on email 

management

Met

Submit email 

records 

schedule to 

NARA for 

approval.

Complete 

evaluation 

of FTC email 

management 

practice.

Metric 3.3.5: Meet project milestones for developing and implementing an agency wide approach for 

managing Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

Federal agencies are required to standardize the designation of confidential yet unclassified information, or 

CUI, in accordance with 32 CFR 2002, et seq. Designation of this information in a standard manner assures 

federal agencies that CUI will consistently be handled properly. The agency’s CUI Working Group has been 

working to implement an agency-wide program. This metric tracks progress on this important project.

FY 2018 

Actual

FY 2019 

Actual

FY 2020 

Actual

FY 2021 

Actual 

FY 2022 

Actual

FY 2022 

Target

FY 2022 

Status

FY 2023 

Target

FY 2024 

Target

N/A N/A N/A N/A

Processes for 

safeguarding 

decontrolling 

and 

destroying 

CUI finalized

Implement 

agency-wide 

physical 

safeguarding 

decontrolling 

and 

destruction 

process for 

CUI.

Met

Implement 

marking of 

information 

agency-wide 

and launch 

agency-wide 

training

Conduct CUI 

program 

evaluation for 

DC offices.