After 20th Year The Federal Trade Commission announced today that, effective immediately, future FTC administrative orders in its consumer protection cases and the core injunctive provisions of future administrative orders in FTC antitrust cases ordinarily will terminate after 20 years, absent the filing of a complaint or consent decree alleging an order violation. Supplemental provisions in future administrative competition orders will terminate after 10 years, the FTC said. Comments on the proposed rule are due Sept. 15, 1995.
Markets change rapidly today and companies regularly change hands or exchange corporate cultures.
In this kind of environment, orders more than 20 years old that have not been violated ordinarily just don't make sense. The new policy statement supersedes and expands on a July 1994 FTC policy statement regarding termination of competition orders. In that instance, the 20-year clock on the duration of consumer protection orders and core provisions of competition orders will be reset to begin again from the date the order violation complaint was filed. Supplemental provisions in FTC orders include prohibitions or restrictions on conduct that is otherwise legal, and which are deemed necessary to prevent the alleged law violation from being repeated or to mitigate its prior effects, as well as provisions imposing affirmative obligations on respondents. The new policy reconfirms that these provisions ordinarily will last no longer than 10 years in competition orders.