Opinion ID: 455766
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: scope of ftc authority under the unfairness doctrine

Text: 26 Petitioners claim that in promulgating the challenged provisions of the Credit Practices Rule, the FTC acted beyond its statutory authority to define unfair acts and practices and to promulgate rules proscribing those acts or practices under sections 5 and 18 of the FTC Act. In order to evaluate petitioners' claims within the proper perspective, the development and current status of the FTC's unfairness authority must be recounted. As this court stated in National Petroleum Refiners Ass'n v. FTC, 482 F.2d 672, 674 (D.C.Cir.1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 951, 94 S.Ct. 1475, 39 L.Ed.2d 567 (1974): The Federal Trade Commission is a creation of Congress, not a creation of judges' contemporary notions of what is wise policy. The extent of its powers can be decided only by considering the powers Congress specifically granted it in the light of the statutory language and background. (citations omitted). 27
28 Congress created the FTC in 1914 and delegated to it the power to determine and prevent unfair methods of competition in commerce. Federal Trade Commission Act, ch. 311, Sec. 5, 38 Stat. 719 (1914) (current version at 15 U.S.C. Sec. 45(a)(1)). At the time of this original delegation, Congress explicitly rejected enacting a statutory definition of the term unfair methods of competition. See S.Rep. No. 597, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. 13 (1914) (The committee gave careful consideration to ... whether it would attempt to define the many and variable unfair practices which prevail in commerce ... or whether it would ... leave it to the commission to determine what practices were unfair. It concluded that the latter course would be better....). Congress' rationale is clearly articulated in the House Conference Report:It is impossible to frame definitions which embrace all unfair practices. There is no limit to human inventiveness in this field. Even if all known unfair practices were specifically defined and prohibited, it would be at once necessary to begin over again. If Congress were to adopt the method of definition, it would undertake an endless task. It is also practically impossible to define unfair practices so that the definition will fit business of every sort in every part of this country. Whether competition is unfair or not generally depends upon the surrounding circumstances of the particular case. What is harmful under certain circumstances may be beneficial under different circumstances. 29 H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 1142, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. 19 (1914). 30 This broad grant of discretionary authority led to two early judicial attempts to cabin the FTC's authority to define unfair practices by limiting the covered practices to those which unduly hinder competition or tend to create monopolies. See, e.g., FTC v. Raladam Co., 283 U.S. 643, 51 S.Ct. 587, 75 L.Ed. 1324 (1931); FTC v. Gratz, 253 U.S. 421, 40 S.Ct. 572, 64 L.Ed. 993 (1920). Subsequent judicial and congressional action, however, overturned these attempts to narrowly circumscribe the FTC's authority. 31 In FTC v. R.F. Keppel & Bro., Inc., 291 U.S. 304, 54 S.Ct. 423, 78 L.Ed. 814 (1934), the FTC issued a cease and desist order under section 5 to prevent a manufacturer from selling candy using a marketing method which tempted children to gamble even though the marketing scheme involved no fraud or deception and could be adopted by competing manufacturers. In finding the practice contrary to public policy and thus unfair within the meaning of section 5, the Supreme Court stated: 32 [W]e cannot say that the Commission's jurisdiction extends only to those types of practices which happen to have been litigated before this court. 33 Neither the language nor the history of the Act suggests that Congress intended to confine the forbidden methods to fixed and unyielding categories. 34 Id. at 309-10, 54 S.Ct. at 425. 35 Congress confirmed the Supreme Court's view of the FTC's authority by enacting the Wheeler-Lee Amendment in 1938. Ch. 49, Sec. 3, 52 Stat. 111 (1938) (codified at 15 U.S.C. Sec. 45(a)). This amendment broadened the language of section 5 to read: 36 The Commission is empowered and directed to prevent persons, partnerships, or corporations ... from using unfair methods of competition in commerce and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce. 37 15 U.S.C. Sec. 45(a)(6) (emphasis added to indicate amended language). One of the primary purposes of this amendment was to broaden the powers of the Federal Trade Commission over unfair methods of competition by extending its jurisdiction to cover unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce. H.R.Rep. No. 1613, 75th Cong., 1st Sess. 1 (1937). The amendment was engendered in large measure by judicial decisions limiting the FTC's authority to practices unfairly inhibiting competition. Id. at 3 (discussing Raladam decision); 83 Cong.Rec. 395 (1938) (The trouble arises, and is continually increasing from court decisions construing the language of the existing law. These accumulated decisions over a period of years have so hedged in the Commission that there is great need for amendments of an enlarging character if the full effectiveness of the objects sought are to be attained.). Congress' intent was affirmatively to grant the Commission authority to protect consumers as well as competitors. 38 By the proposed amendment to section 5, the Commission can prevent such acts or practices which injuriously affect the general public as well as those which are unfair to competitors. In other words, this amendment makes the consumer, who may be injured by an unfair trade practice, of equal concern, before the law, with the merchant or manufacturer injured by the unfair methods of a dishonest competitor. 39 H.R.Rep. No. 1613, 75th Cong., 1st Sess. 3 (1937). 40 Despite the passage of the Wheeler-Lee Amendment in 1938, Congress found that the FTC continued to be hampered as an effective force in promoting fair and free competition and safeguarding the consumer public against unfair or deceptive acts or practices by the scope of its authority being limited to matters 'in commerce' and by being made to rely solely on the cease and desist order procedure for enforcement. H.R.Rep. No. 1107, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 29 (1974) U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1974, pp. 7702, 7712. House Report No. 1107 noted the growing consumer consciousness which had developed during the sixties and cited two oversight studies of the FTC which were extremely critical of the FTC's lack of effectiveness in carrying out its consumer protection responsibilities. Id. at 33-34 (citing American Bar Association, Report of the Commission to Study the Federal Trade Commission (1969); E. Cox, R. Felimuth & J. Schulz, The Nader Report on the Federal Trade Commission (1969)). Both reports noted the need for additional statutory authority to permit the FTC to carry out its consumer protection responsibilities. Id. at 34, U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1974, p. 7716. Congress thus enacted the Magnuson-Moss Warranty--Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act to codify the Commission's authority to make substantive rules for unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce. 7 H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 1606, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 31 (1974). The conferees regarded this as an important power by which the Commission can fairly and efficiently pursue its important statutory mission. Id. The Magnuson-Moss Act added section 18 to the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 57a, which provides: 41 (1) ... [T]he Commission may prescribe-- 42 (A) interpretive rules and general statements of policy with respect to unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce (within the meaning of section 45(a)(1) of this title), and 43 (B) rules which define with specificity acts or practices which are unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce (within the meaning of section 45(a)(1) of this title).... Rules under this subparagraph may include requirements prescribed for the purpose of preventing such acts or practices. 8 44 15 U.S.C. Sec. 57a(a)(1)(A), (B). 45
46 While both the Wheeler-Lee Amendment and the Magnuson-Moss Act legitimized and facilitated the Commission's consumer protection activities, neither shed much light on the standards to be used in identifying unfair acts or practices. Congress has not at any time withdrawn the broad discretionary authority originally granted the Commission in 1914 to define unfair practices on a flexible, incremental basis. 9 Courts have accordingly adopted a malleable view of the Commission's authority. See, e.g., FTC v. Sperry & Hutchinson Co., 405 U.S. 233, 244, 92 S.Ct. 898, 905, 31 L.Ed.2d 170 (1972) (comparing FTC to a court of equity in carrying out implementation of the elusive, but congressionally mandated standard of fairness); Atlantic Refining Co. v. FTC, 381 U.S. 357, 367, 85 S.Ct. 1498, 1505, 14 L.Ed.2d 443 (1965) (Congress intentionally left the development of the term unfair to the Commission); R.F. Keppel & Bro., 291 U.S. at 310, 54 S.Ct. at 425 (Congress did not intend to confine forbidden practices to fixed and unyielding categories). Nonetheless as this court has stated: The Commission is hardly free to write its own law of consumer protection.... National Petroleum Refiners Ass'n, 482 F.2d at 693. The Commission's exercise of its unfairness authority in any particular instance is subject to judicial review and may be affirmed or set aside by the court. See Sperry & Hutchinson, 405 U.S. at 249, 92 S.Ct. at 907; R.F. Keppel & Bro., 291 U.S. at 314, 54 S.Ct. at 427. 47 The judiciary remains the final authority with respect to questions of statutory construction and must reject administrative agency actions which exceed the agency's statutory mandate or frustrate congressional intent. See, e.g., FEC v. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Comm., 454 U.S. 27, 32, 102 S.Ct. 38, 42, 70 L.Ed.2d 23 (1981); Volkswagenwerk v. FMC, 390 U.S. 261, 272, 88 S.Ct. 929, 935, 19 L.Ed.2d 1090 (1968); NLRB v. Brown, 380 U.S. 278, 291, 85 S.Ct. 980, 988, 13 L.Ed.2d 839 (1965); FTC v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., 380 U.S. 374, 385, 85 S.Ct. 1035, 1042, 13 L.Ed.2d 904 (1965). The Supreme Court has made clear, however, that in reviewing an agency's construction of a statute which it administers, courts must give deference to the agency's interpretation: 48 If Congress has explicitly left a gap for the agency to fill, there is an express delegation of authority to the agency to elucidate a specific provision of the statute by regulation. Such legislative regulations are given controlling weight unless they are arbitrary, capricious, or manifestly contrary to the statute. 49 Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2782, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984); see also Colgate-Palmolive Co., 380 U.S. at 385, 85 S.Ct. at 1042 (This Court has frequently stated that the [FTC's] judgment is to be given great weight by reviewing courts.). Thus we must perform our quintessential judicial function of determining whether the Commission has acted within the bounds of its statutory authority while at the same time according due deference to the Commission's judgment as to what constitutes an unfair practice. We do not understand the dissent to disagree with the foregoing principles of judicial review. See Dissent at 991-992. We are consequently taken aback by its characterization of our performance as being anesthetized by deference to the Commission. See Dissent at 998. In our view, it is the dissent that would stray outside the established bounds of judicial review and effectively usurp the role of the FTC. The dissent presents its own selective review of the Commission's stated rationale while disregarding the totality of the Commission's reasoning, and ultimately supplants the final judgment of all five Commissioners with respect to the wisdom of their determination that the taking of HHG security interests and wage assignments are unfair creditor practices. We decline to view our role so broadly. See Atlantic Refining Co., 381 U.S. at 367, 85 S.Ct. at 1505 ([O]ur function is limited to determining whether the Commission's decision 'has warrant in the record and a reasonable basis in law.' ) (quoting NLRB v. Hearst Publications, Inc., 322 U.S. 111, 131, 64 S.Ct. 851, 860, 88 L.Ed. 1170 (1944)). 50 The broad delegation of discretionary authority to the FTC to define unfair practices makes our task particularly difficult in this case. In ascertaining whether the FTC has exceeded the limits of its statutory authority by defining HHG security interests and wage assignments as unfair creditor practices we would be materially aided by a particularization of the congressionally intended legal standard for assessing the fairness of particular acts or practices. Yet, Congress has expressly declined to delineate such a legal standard claiming that the standard must be stated in broad terms to allow the Commission to respond to evolving market conditions and practices. If that were Congress' last word, the court would be left with two equally unattractive alternatives: articulating a legal standard of unfairness which Congress has expressly refused, on policy grounds, to articulate or deciding the reasonableness of the Commission's unfairness determination based on our own views of what should be deemed an unfair practice without benefit of any concrete standards for judgment. Fortunately recent interactions between Congress and the Commission provide the court with some tangible guideposts for review. 51 Considerable controversy developed during the mid to late seventies over the FTC's exercise of its consumer unfairness regulatory authority. Spurred on by the criticisms in the late sixties of the Commission's lack of effectiveness in the realm of consumer protection, the prodding of congressional committees, and the passage of the Magnuson-Moss Act, the Commission vigorously stepped up its consumer protection activities under its unfairness regulatory authority. See supra p. 967; H.R.Rep. No. 809, Pt. 1, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. 10-11 (1982). The Commission's new activism engendered commentators' criticism of the vagueness and breadth of the unfairness doctrine. 10 The controversy over the Commission's consumer protection activities peaked in the late-1970's with the Commission's particularly controversial foray into regulation of television advertising directed at children; the proposed rule would have completely prohibited the advertising of certain products during children's programming. 11 52 In response to this controversy, Congress enacted the Federal Trade Commission Improvements Act of 1980, Pub.L. No. 96-252, 94 Stat. 374 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 15 U.S.C.) which suspended the Commission's controversial rulemaking on children's advertising and placed a moratorium on the initiation of any new rulemakings aimed at regulating commercial advertising as an unfair practice pending congressional oversight hearings. 12 Although Congress has subsequently solicited statements and held oversight hearings on the question of whether the FTC's unfairness authority should be eliminated or permanently restricted, 13 it has taken no definitive legislative action to define the limits of that authority. Bills were introduced in both the 97th and 98th Congresses which would have amended section 5 to provide a definition of unfair acts or practices. 14 The definition proposed in these bills was the definition supplied by the Commission at the request of Congress in a 1980 policy statement. See Letter from Federal Trade Commission to Senators Ford and Danforth (Dec. 17, 1980), reprinted in H.R.Rep. No. 156, Pt. 1, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. 33-40 (1983) [hereinafter cited as Policy Statement with page references to H.R.Rep. No. 156]. 53 In its Policy Statement, subscribed to by all five Commissioners, the FTC responded to the criticism levelled at the Commission's implementation of its unfairness authority by delineating a concrete framework for the future application of that authority. See Policy Statement at 34 (This letter thus delineates the Commission's view of the boundaries of its consumer unfairness jurisdiction and is subscribed to by each Commissioner.). The Commission noted that Congress by framing section 5 in general terms expected the underlying criteria to evolve and develop over time, thus, [t]he present understanding of the unfairness standard is the result of an evolutionary process. See Policy Statement at 35. The Commission's Policy Statement was basically a refinement of an earlier three-part standard of unfairness it had set out in 1964. 54 In 1964 the Commission determined that enough cases had been decided to enable the Commission to identify three criteria used in determining whether a practice, which is neither anticompetitive nor deceptive, is nonetheless unfair to consumers. 55 (1) whether the practice, without necessarily having been previously considered unlawful, offends public policy as it has been established by statutes, the common law, or otherwise--whether, in other words, it is within at least the penumbra of some commonlaw, statutory, or other established concept of unfairness; (2) whether it is immoral, unethical, oppressive, or unscrupulous; (3) whether it causes substantial injury to consumers (or competitors or other businessmen). 56 Unfair or Deceptive Advertising and Labeling of Cigarettes in Relation to the Health Hazards of Smoking, Statement of Basis and Purpose, 29 Fed.Reg. 8355 (1964). The Commission noted that the Supreme Court cited these criteria with apparent approval in Sperry & Hutchinson, 405 U.S. at 244-45 n. 5, 92 S.Ct. at 905-906 n. 5. See Policy Statement at 36 & n. 9 (citing Spiegel, Inc. v. FTC, 540 F.2d 287, 293 n. 8 (7th Cir.1976); Heater v. FTC, 503 F.2d 321, 323 (9th Cir.1974)). The Supreme Court appended footnote 5, citing what have come to be termed the S & H criteria, to the following statement comparing the FTC to a court of equity: 57 [T]he Federal Trade Commission does not arrogate excessive power to itself if, in measuring a practice against the elusive, but congressionally mandated standard of fairness, it, like a court of equity, considers public values beyond simply those enshrined in the letter or encompassed in the spirit of the antitrust laws. 58 Sperry & Hutchinson, 405 U.S. at 244, 92 S.Ct. at 905. In Sperry & Hutchinson, the Supreme Court thus put its stamp of approval on the Commission's evolving use of a consumer unfairness doctrine not moored in the traditional rationales of anticompetitiveness or deception. 15 59 In its 1980 policy statement addressed to Congress, the Commission stated that since Sperry & Hutchinson, the Commission has continued to refine the standard of unfairness in its cases and rules, and it has now reached a more detailed sense of both the definition and the limits of these criteria. Policy Statement at 36. The Commission set forth the following standard for identifying practices which are unfair to consumers: 60 To justify a finding of unfairness the injury must satisfy three tests. It must be substantial; it must not be outweighed by any countervailing benefits to consumers or competition that the practice produces; and it must be an injury that consumers themselves could not reasonably have avoided. 61 Id. It was this standard that the Commission relied on in determining that the taking of HHG security interests and wage assignments were unfair practices. See Credit Practices Rule, 49 Fed.Reg. at 7743. 62 While the Commission's three-part unfairness standard sets forth an abstract definition of unfairness focusing on unjustified consumer injury, it does little towards delineating the specific kinds of practices or consumer injuries which it encompasses. 16 Yet petitioners' challenge in this case raises the exact question left open by the Commission's standard--what specific types of unfair practices and resultant consumer injuries are cognizable? Petitioners' claim that the Commission has exceeded its statutory authority to proscribe unfair practices is predicated on their arguments that the FTC has no authority to proscribe the kinds of practices or prevent the kinds of consumer injury at issue in this case. Thus despite the Policy Statement's purpose of providing greater certainty in application of the unfairness doctrine, it falls short of providing any concrete guidance to the court in resolving the issues raised by petitioners in this case. To date, however, the consumer injury test is the most precise definition of unfairness articulated by either the Commission or Congress. 17 Thus we determine the validity of the Commission's actions by reviewing the reasonableness of the Commission's application of the consumer injury test to the facts of this case, and the consistency of that application with congressional policy and prior Commission precedent. See Atlantic Refining Co., 381 U.S. at 367, 85 S.Ct. at 1505 (Where the Congress has provided that an administrative agency initially apply a broad statutory term to a particular situation, our function is limited to determining whether the Commission's decision 'has warrant in the record and a reasonable basis in law.' ) (quoting NLRB v. Hearst Publications, Inc., 322 U.S. 111, 131, 64 S.Ct. 851, 860, 88 L.Ed. 1170 (1944)). 63
64 Applying the three-part consumer unfairness standard, the Commission found that HHG security interests and wage assignments were unfair creditor remedies because they caused substantial, unjustified consumer injury. Our analysis begins with a review of the Commission's reasoning with respect to each of the three criteria set out in the consumer unfairness standard.
65 In elaborating the term substantial injury in its Policy Statement, the Commission stated that in most cases substantial injury would involve monetary harm and that ordinarily emotional impact and other more subjective types of harm would not make a practice unfair. See Policy Statement at 36. The Commission further clarified that it is not concerned with trivial or merely speculative harms. Id. An injury may be sufficiently substantial, however, if it does a small harm to a large number of people, or if it raises a significant risk of concrete harm. Id. at n. 12. With these guidelines 18 in mind, we turn to the specific injuries found to result from HHG security interests and wage assignments. 66 (a) Security interests in household goods. In return for credit, consumers may be required to give a non-possessory security interest in their household goods and personal effects. These goods may be seized by the creditor in the event of a default. See Credit Practices Rule, 49 Fed.Reg. at 7761. Such non-possessory security interests were not recognized at common law and are of comparatively recent origin. Id. Based on the rulemaking record, the Commission found the practice of securing loans with non-purchase, non-possessory security interests in household goods to be widespread, with finance companies being the preeminent users. Id. at 7762. HHG security interests may be created by simply checking a box labelled chattel mortgage or by other general provisions in the text of standard form contracts, thus, giving consumers little notice of the nature and extent of the collateral they are pledging. Id. 67 Based on evidence in the record, including the testimony of a large majority of industry witnesses, the Commission found that HHG security interests have little, if any, economic value to creditors. The creditors cannot ordinarily recover their loss on default by seizing and selling the goods. Consequently actual seizure of household goods by creditors is rare. The Commission summarized its findings as follows: 68 The record reflects the fact that creditors rarely engage in actual repossession of household goods. When it does occur, the furniture and other items seized frequently have little or no economic value; occasionally, the act of seizure appears to be undertaken for punitive or psychological deterrent effect. 69 Id. at 7763 (footnotes omitted). 70 Although the household goods are of little value to creditors and are rarely seized, when seizure does occur the Commission found that it can have severe economic consequences for the consumer. The consumer, most likely already enmeshed in a financial crisis, loses the possession and use of household necessities such as furniture, appliances, linens and kitchenware. While the monetary gain realized by the creditor upon seizure and sale of goods is minimal to nonexistent, the replacement cost to the consumer is substantial, not to mention the sentimental value of the possessions and psychological impact of the loss on the consumer. Thus seizure often imposes a cost on the consumer which is seriously disproportionate to any benefit the creditor obtains. Id. 71 The Commission further found that even in the absence of actual seizure, HHG security interests still resulted in injury to consumers. Creditors rely on HHG security interests primarily as a psychological lever to seek payment and to persuade consumers to take other actions the creditors may deem appropriate.... Id. The Commission recognized that not all creditors use threats of seizure to coerce consumer response but concluded that the preponderance of evidence supports a conclusion that such threats are commonplace. 19 Id. at 7764. Because the loss occasioned by the seizure of household goods is so profound, threats of seizure in themselves are uniquely harmful and disruptive to the consumer and the family. 20 Id. The injury resulting from threats or suggestions of seizure is not limited to psychological harm. Consumers threatened with the loss of their most basic possessions become desperate and peculiarly vulnerable to any suggested ways out. As a result, creditors are in a prime position to urge debtors to take steps which may worsen their financial circumstances. Id. The consumer may default on other debts or agree to enter refinancing agreements which may reduce or defer monthly payments on a short-term basis but at the cost of increasing the consumer's total long-term debt obligation. Consumers may also forego assertion of valid defenses, set-offs or counterclaims in their haste to reach acceptable repayment agreements so as to avoid the perceived imminent seizure of their property. Id. at 7764-65. In sum, consumers at risk of losing their household necessities will take steps which substantially worsen their overall financial condition. 72 (b) Wage assignments. A wage assignment allows the creditor, upon filing with the debtor's employer, to receive all or a portion of the debtor's wages directly from the employer. Wage assignments, unlike wage garnishments, do not require a judgment and can be filed without any judicial review of the creditor's claim. The Commission found that wage assignments were used primarily by small loan and finance companies in California, Illinois, Michigan and New York. Id. at 7757. Although estimates varied, the Commission concluded that wage assignments are prevalent in states where they are permitted and are used in a significant number of consumer transactions. Id. 73 The Commission found wage assignments particularly harmful to consumers because they can be invoked without the due process safeguards of a hearing and opportunity to present defenses. 21 Id. Although some states provide debtors some statutory procedural protections allowing them to prevent effectuation of a wage assignment by serving a notice of defense on the employer and creditor, the Commission found such protective schemes generally ineffective, due to lack of awareness and understanding on the part of the debtor. [D]espite the existence of state statutes, many wage assignments result in collection by creditors even when there have [sic] been a breach of warranty, fraud, or other violation of law that may constitute a defense to payment. Id. at 7758. 74 The rulemaking record further established that wage assignments injure consumers by detrimentally injecting the creditor into the employment relationship. Employers are hostile to wage assignments due to added administrative costs and burdens and the fear that the employee's job motivation and performance will suffer as a result of the reduction in wages. Id. Moreover, employers tend to view the consumer's failure to repay the debt as a sign of irresponsibility. As a consequence many lose their jobs after wage assignments are filed. 22 Even if the consumer retains the job, promotions, raises, and job assignments may be adversely affected. Id. 75 Wage assignments are usually invoked at a time when the debtor is already experiencing severe financial hardship. Loss of a substantial portion of wages tends to cause further disruption of family finances and may even put at risk the wage earner's ability to provide necessities for the family. Id. at 7758-59. Even when wage assignments are not actually invoked, consumer injury may still result. As with HHG security interests, the Commission found that creditors use wage assignments as in terrorem devices to coerce consumers to pay. The invocation of a wage assignment or just simply the threat of invocation may lead a debtor to enter into costly refinancing, to improvidently default on other obligations, or to forego valid defenses. Thus consumers will act against their own best economic interests to avoid the greater potential injury of having creditors contact their employers and risk losing their jobs. [C]reditors exploit that fear despite the fact that job loss would be economically counterproductive to the creditor. Id. at 7758. The Commission, thus, concluded: 76 In the absence of procedural safeguards, the potential for severe, substantial disruption of employment, the pressure that results from threats to file wage assignments, and the disruption of family finances constitute significant consumer injury. State law is inconsistent and does not offer sufficient protection to prevent this consumer injury. 77 Id. at 7759. 78 The harms to consumers resulting from the use of HHG security interests and wage assignments identified by the Commission on the basis of the rulemaking record are neither trivial or speculative nor based merely on notions of subjective distress or offenses to taste. The use of HHG security interests and wage assignments result in or create a significant risk of substantial economic and monetary harm to the consumer as well as potential deprivations of their legal rights. Hence the Commission clearly met its first criterion of establishing substantial consumer injury.
79 The Commission recognizes that most business practices entail a balancing of costs and benefits to the consumer. Therefore the Commission will not find that a practice unfairly injures consumers unless it is injurious in its net effects. Policy Statement at 37. To make this cost-benefit determination, the Commission examines the potential costs that the proposed remedy would impose on the parties and society in general. In the present case, the Commission made the following assessment: 80 The potential costs of most significance in this proceeding include increased collection costs, increased screening costs, larger legal costs and increases in bad debt losses or reserves. Increased creditor costs generally would be reflected in higher interests to borrowers, reduced credit availability, or other restrictions such as increased collateral or down payment requirements. 81 49 Fed.Reg. at 7744 (footnotes omitted). 82 In weighing the costs and benefits of the Credit Practices Rule to consumers and the credit industry, the Commission first noted that the potential cost of eliminating HHG security interests and wage assignments is diminished by the presence of other remedies retained by creditors under the Rule. Creditor remedies unaffected by the Rule include the right to take purchase-money security interests which allow for repossession of the particular item purchased, to obtain a deficiency judgment or bring a suit directly on the debt, and to garnish the debtor's wages. 23 Thus, [t]he remedies subject to the rule must be evaluated in light of their more incremental contribution to deterring default or reducing other creditor costs given remedies that remain available. Id. at 7744-45 (emphasis added). 83 Of course, to the extent HHG security interests and wage assignments actually reduce creditor costs, consumers will theoretically benefit by the greater availability of credit at a lower cost. In short, the crucial issue before the Commission was whether prohibiting HHG security interests and wage assignments would decrease availability and increase the cost of credit to consumers and, if so, whether this cost was outweighed by the benefits of the Rule to the same consumers (the benefits being the avoidance of the harms incurred by consumers as a result of the use of HHG security interests and wage assignments). Based on record evidence, the Commission concluded that the Rule would have only a marginal impact on the cost or availability of credit, and that this marginal cost was clearly overshadowed by the much greater risks to consumers resulting from the use of HHG security interests and wage assignments. See infra pp. 985-988. Thus we find that the Commission satisfied the second prong of the three-part consumer injury test set out in its Policy Statement.
84 The requirement that the injury cannot be reasonably avoided by the consumers stems from the Commission's general reliance on free and informed consumer choice as the best regulator of the market. Normally we expect the marketplace to be self-correcting, and we rely on consumer choice--the ability of individual consumers to make their own private purchasing decisions without regulatory intervention--to govern the market. Policy Statement at 37. As long recognized, however, certain types of seller conduct or market imperfections may unjustifiably hinder consumers' free market decisions and prevent the forces of supply and demand from maximizing benefits and minimizing costs. In such instances of market failure, the Commission may be required to take corrective action. Such corrective action is taken not to second-guess the wisdom of particular consumer decisions, but rather to halt some form of seller behavior that unreasonably creates or takes advantage of an obstacle to the free exercise of consumer decisionmaking. Id. at 37. 85 The Commission found that the injuries occasioned by the use of HHG security interests and wage assignments are not reasonably avoidable by consumers for two interrelated reasons: (1) consumers are not, as a practical matter, able to shop and bargain over alternative remedial provisions; and (2) default is ordinarily the product of forces beyond a debtor's control. 49 Fed.Reg. at 7744. The Commission identified a confluence of factors which create an obstacle to the free exercise of consumer decisionmaking and which creditors are able to use to their advantage. 86 First, the Commission found that most creditors rely on standardized form contracts with boilerplate provisions defining the rights and duties of the parties. Id. at 7745-47. The Presiding Officer's Report concludes: 87 Creditors universally make use of standardized forms in extending credit to consumers. These forms are prepared for creditors or obtained by them, and the completed contract is presented to the prospective borrower on a take it or leave it basis. The primary reason for this is simply that it is not feasible to conduct the transaction in any other way. 88 P.O. Report, J.A. at 395. The Commission acknowledges that standard form contracts are a business necessity for small-loan creditors. 49 Fed.Reg. at 7744. The Commission further found, however, that due to certain characteristics of the consumer credit market, it could not reasonably conclude that the mix of remedies included in the contracts reflects consumer preferences. Id. at 7744, 7746. Whereas consumers may bargain over terms such as interest rates, and the amount or number of payments, their ability and incentive to bargain over the boilerplate remedial provisions is substantially limited. Id. at 7746-47. 89 Several aspects of the credit transaction combine to prevent consumers from making meaningful efforts to search, compare, and bargain over remedial provisions. As noted, standard form contracts are presented on a take it or leave it basis. While there are differences in the kinds of contracts offered by different creditors, certain creditors, namely finance companies serving higher-risk borrowers, are most likely to include HHG security interests and wage assignments. Furthermore while the incidence of use of these provisions may differ across different regions of the country, contracts offered by creditors of a given class in local areas are often substantially identical. Id. at 7746. Given the substantial similarity of contracts, consumers have little ability or incentive to shop for a better contract. 90 Consumers' ability to shop and bargain is further constricted by the fine print and technical language used in the contracts. Id. at 7747. Moreover, consumers are limited in their ability to seek explanations from lenders since inquiries about remedies are likely to make creditors wary and hesitant to grant a loan. Finally, [i]n some cases, comparison is impossible because the creditor refuses to give out the loan contract until the borrower seems ready to sign it. Id. 24 91 Consumers' limited ability and incentive to search out better contracts is compounded by creditors' lack of incentive to advertise or compete on the basis of remedies. Id. Consumers' lack of understanding of contractual terms is the first obstacle. Before competing on the basis of exclusion or inclusion of particular contract terms, creditors would have to educate the consumer as to the ramifications of the inclusion of a particular clause and why a contract excluding the clause is preferable. Such an educational effort would entail substantial costs and would tend to create a free-rider problem with competing creditors reaping benefits from the advertising creditor's educational efforts. The second disincentive to creditors is the problem of adverse selection. If a creditor advertised less onerous remedies, the creditor is likely to attract a disproportionately greater share of those debtors who intend to or who are most likely to default. 92 The Commission also relied upon the fact that default is a relatively infrequent occurrence and generally not within consumers' control. Id. at 7747-48. Consumers could avoid the injuries attendant on the use of HHG security interests and wage assignments if they avoided defaulting on their payments. Relying principally on two large complementary survey studies 25 of the causes of default, the Commission concluded that default is ordinarily the product of forces beyond the debtor's control. Default is usually precipitated by unforeseeable and unavoidable events that reduce income (e.g., job loss or pay reduction) or increase demands (e.g., incapacitation, relocation, unplanned emergency expenses, marital separation or divorce). When these events, outside the debtor's immediate control, occur default is generally an involuntary response. 26 Id. at 7747. The unforeseeable and unavoidable nature of default not only make the implementation of the creditor remedies unavoidable but also limit consumers' incentive to search for contracts which do not include particular remedies. Since consumers do not expect to default, the invocation of particular creditor remedies seems remote and speculative at the time of contracting and thus is not a material element in the consumer's decision. Instead consumers quite reasonably focus their attention on the more immediate terms such as interest rates and payments. Id. at 7746. 93 On the basis of the foregoing analysis, the Commission concluded that consumers cannot reasonably avoid the inclusion of HHG security interests and wage assignments in credit contracts or their implementation. We conclude that the Commission's finding of unavoidable injury comports with the criteria set out in the Commission's Policy Statement. 94
95 Although the Commission has identified a substantial consumer injury, which is not offset by countervailing benefits, and which cannot be reasonably avoided by consumers, petitioners nonetheless challenge the ban on HHG security interests and wage assignments as outside the scope of the Commission's unfairness authority. Petitioners claim that the FTC's description of what constitutes a substantial, unjustified, and unavoidable injury in this proceeding exceeds the bounds the Commission itself has previously erected for channeling its discretion to proscribe unfair practices. See AFSA Brief at 17. With respect to injury, petitioners assert that section 5 does not encompass consumer harms resulting from the consumer's own choice of action unless that choice is improperly manipulated by seller overreaching (i.e., deception, coercion, or withholding of material information). Relatedly petitioners argue that the requirement of unavoidability is not met unless the seller's overreaching interferes with the consumer's ability to make an informed uncoerced choice. Finding no creditor overreaching in the present case, petitioners assert that the FTC is attempting to play national nanny by protecting consumers against the hardships of their own miscalculations in pledging HHG security interests and wage assignments. See AFSA Brief at 62. In petitioners' view the FTC is gratuitously intervening in the market to provide the optimal mix of options for consumers. This exceeds the FTC's authority, in petitioners' view, because the FTC must first identify some overreaching creditor or seller practice which is distorting the proper functioning of the market. 96 In essence, petitioners ask the court to limit the FTC's exercise of its unfairness authority to situations involving deception, coercion, or withholding of material information. As noted earlier, despite considerable controversy over the bounds of the FTC's authority, neither Congress nor the FTC has seen fit to delineate the specific kinds of practices which will be deemed unfair within the meaning of section 5. Instead the FTC has adhered to its established convention, envisioned by Congress, of developing and refining its unfair practice criteria on a progressive, incremental basis. Nevertheless, petitioners seek to support their claim that the FTC has exceeded its statutory authority by arguing that the Commission has never before asserted the scope of authority exercised in this rulemaking. Thus, in addressing petitioners' challenge, we look first to past Commission unfairness decisions to determine if a basis in precedent exists for the Commission's present rulemaking. 97 Our task of reviewing Commission unfairness precedent is hindered by the Commission's cautious use of its unfairness authority as an independent basis for decision--most frequently the Commission has relied on alternate theories of deception and unfairness. See supra note 15. The Credit Practices Rule is a rare example of the Commission proceeding solely on unfairness grounds. We are aided, initially, by a fairly recent article authored by a member of the Commission's Office of Planning cataloguing the kinds of commercial practices which the Commission has determined to be unfair. Specifically this article identifies four primary categories of practices which have been prohibited as unfair: (1) withholding material information; (2) making unsubstantiated advertising claims; (3) using high-pressure sales techniques; and (4) depriving consumers of various post-purchase remedies. See Craswell, supra note 15, at 109. 98 It is true that many, but not all, of the Commission's unfairness decisions have involved the kind of overreaching seller conduct pinpointed by petitioners. 27 But of particular relevance to this case are those Commission decisions dealing with the allocation of post-purchase rights. The majority of consumer transactions involve not only the purchase of a product but also the allocation, between the buyer and seller, of a number of contractual and noncontractual rights and duties with respect to the product purchased (e.g., remedies available to the buyer if the product is defective or to the seller if the buyer defaults). The Commission, in the post-purchase right cases, has stepped in to correct allocations of post-purchase remedies determined to be unfair to consumers. 99 A prime example is the Commission's rule preventing sellers from taking advantage of the holder-in-due-course doctrine. See Preservation of Consumers' Claims and Defenses, Statement of Basis and Purpose, 40 Fed.Reg. 53,506 (1975) (codified at 16 C.F.R. pt. 433 (1984)). The holder-in-due-course doctrine immunizes the subsequent holder of a negotiable instrument from the claims or defenses which the consumer could have asserted against the original holder, if the subsequent holder took the instrument for value, in good faith, and without notice of any claims or defenses against it. Thus, under the holder-in-due-course doctrine, the seller could discount the consumer's note to a third party making the consumer unconditionally liable to the third party with no recourse even if the product turned out to be totally defective. The Commission determined that the use of the holder-in-due-course doctrine in consumer credit transactions was an unfair practice. See id. at 53,524 ([I]t constitutes an unfair and deceptive practice to use contractual boilerplate to separate a buyer's duty to pay from a seller's duty to perform.). The Holder-in-Due-Course Rule abrogated the use of the holder-in-due-course doctrine in consumer credit transactions by requiring sellers to include a notice in all consumer sales instruments stating that any subsequent holder is subject to all claims and defenses that could be asserted against the seller. 100 Petitioners distinguish the Holder-in-Due-Course Rule, by asserting that there the Commission intervened to prevent consumers from being victimized by a counter-intuitive legal doctrine. AFSA Brief at 31 n. 3. Petitioners thus attempt to characterize the rationale underlying the Holder-in-Due-Course Rule solely in terms of deception. We find this argument unpersuasive in light of the Commission's stated rationale. Prior to promulgating the Holder-in-Due-Course Rule, the Commission had already held a seller's practice of routinely assigning purchasers' notes to third parties inherently unfair and deceptive because consumers were unaware and did not intuitively expect that a seller could deprive them of valid claims and defenses to the obligation by discounting their notes to third parties. Disclosure was determined to be the proper remedy. See In re All-State Industries, Inc., 75 F.T.C. 465, 489-94 (1969), aff'd 423 F.2d 423 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 828, 91 S.Ct. 57, 27 L.Ed.2d 58 (1970). The Commission, however, adopted a more economically oriented rationale focusing on the effect of the seller's post-purchase conduct on the consumer's economic welfare when it later adopted the Holder-in-Due-Course Rule which completely prevented sellers from taking advantage of the holder-in-due course doctrine. See Preservation of Consumers' Claims and Defenses, Statement of Basis and Purpose, 40 Fed.Reg. at 53,522-24. 101 The Commission believes that relief under Section five of the FTC Act is appropriate where sellers or creditors impose adhesive contracts upon consumers, where such contracts contain terms which injure consumers, and where consumer injury is not off-set by a reasonable measure of value received in return. In this connection, the Commission's authority to examine and prohibit unfair practices in or affecting commerce in the manner of a commercial equity court is appropriately applied to this problem. Where one party to a transaction enjoys substantial advantages with respect to the consumers with whom he deals, it is appropriate for the Commission to conduct an inquiry to determine whether the dominant party is using an overabundance of market power, or commercial advantage, in an inequitable manner. 102 Id. at 53,524. 103 Thus the Commission in promulgating the Holder-in-Due-Course Rule articulated an economic rationale for its unfairness determination. 104 This theory (in effect) posits a market imperfection which for some reason prevents the market from arriving at the most efficient distribution of post-purchase rights between buyers and sellers. Faced with such an imperfection, the Commission steps in to correct the market's results by reassigning post-purchase rights between the various parties until the most efficient result is reached. 105 Craswell, supra note 15, at 131. This is basically the same economic rationale exemplified in the Commission's Policy Statement and utilized in this case. See Policy Statement at 37 (Commission's actions are brought to halt some form of seller behavior that unreasonably creates or takes advantage of an obstacle to the free exercise of consumer decisionmaking) (emphasis added). Thus contrary to petitioners' assertions, the Commission has in the past sanctioned intervention not only where the seller's conduct affirmatively causes distortion of proper market functioning but also where the seller takes advantage of an existing obstacle which prevents free consumer choice from effectuating a self-correcting market. 106 In the present case, the Commission identified particular aspects of the credit transaction which substantially limit the consumer's ability and incentive to bargain over credit remedies and which limit the creditor's incentives to compete on the basis of remedies. See supra pp. 976-978. This market imperfection prevents consumer choice from operating to effect the mix of remedies which most reflects consumer preferences and leaves creditors free to exploit this market failure by including an entire litany of remedies as boilerplate provisions. 28 Thus the Commission concluded that by insisting on HHG security interests and wage assignments, creditors are taking advantage of an existing obstacle to the free exercise of consumer decisionmaking and thereby engaging in an unfair practice. 107 While we agree with petitioners that the Commission cannot be allowed to intervene at will whenever it believes the market is not producing the best deal for consumers, we nonetheless believe that this court would be overstepping its authority if we were to mandate, as petitioners urge, that the Commission's unfairness authority is limited solely to the regulation of conduct involving deception, coercion or the withholding of material information. As previously discussed, the Commission's consumer injury test, set forth in its Policy Statement, while not specifically defining the kinds of practices or injuries encompassed, is the most precise definition of unfairness articulated to date by either the Commission or Congress. Upon reviewing it, Congress has not seen fit to enact any more particularized definition of unfairness to limit the Commission's discretion. Indeed, the most significant congressional response to the Policy Statement has not been criticisms or rejection, but proposals to enact the Commission's three-part consumer injury standard into law. See supra pp. 970-971 & n. 14. Thus, the Commission has, for all practical purposes, been left to develop its unfairness doctrine on an incremental, evolutionary basis. See supra p. 967. At this juncture, it is not for this court to step in and confine, by judicial fiat, the Commission's unfairness authority to acts or practices found to be deceptive or coercive. Our role is simply to review the Commission's exercise of its unfairness authority in this case. See supra pp. 968-969. We find that the Commission's articulated rationale for its determination that the taking of HHG security interests and wage assignments constitute unfair practices fully comports with the criteria set out in the FTC's Policy Statement. The Commission has sufficiently identified and documented the factors resulting in an obstacle to free consumer decisionmaking which is being exploited by creditors to the detriment of consumers. 29 We cannot therefore say that the Commission has exceeded the boundaries of its statutory authority to define unfair practices in this case. 108 The Commission's economic rationale for finding the taking of HHG security interests and wage assignments to be unfair practices is additionally bolstered by considerations of equity and public policy. It is well established that certain types of contracts or contractual provisions may be prohibited simply because they violate accepted principles of fair play and equity, e.g., contracts of adhesion. Cf. U.C.C. Sec. 2-302 (1978) (unconscionable contracts or clauses). And courts have recognized that the Commission was never intended to disregard principles of equity in reaching its decisions. See Sperry & Hutchinson, 405 U.S. at 244, 92 S.Ct. at 905 (FTC may like a court of equity consider public values beyond those enshrined in the letter or ... spirit of the antitrust laws); FTC v. Standard Educ. Soc'y, 86 F.2d 692, 696 (2d Cir.1936) (Hand, J.) (FTC's duty in part at any rate, is to discover and make explicit those unexpressed standards of fair dealing which the conscience of the community may progressively develop), rev'd on other grounds, 302 U.S. 112, 58 S.Ct. 113, 82 L.Ed. 141 (1937) (reversing that part of Second Circuit's holding which modified and weakened FTC's cease and desist order); see also Spiegel, Inc. v. FTC, 540 F.2d 287, 292 (7th Cir.1976) (invoking a public policy rationale and stating that FTC has authority to prohibit conduct that, although legally proper, [is] unfair to the public). In its Policy Statement, the Commission states that considerations of public policy are frequently used as confirmatory evidence of the unfairness of a particular practice but that [s]ometimes public policy will independently support a Commission action. Policy Statement at 38-39. See generally Averitt, supra note 15, at 275-78 (discussing FTC's reliance on public policy considerations); Craswell, supra note 15, at 135-39 (discussing FTC's reliance on considerations of equity). 109 In the present case, the Commission found that wage assignments are prohibited in Uniform Credit Code states, several other states, and the District of Columbia. 49 Fed.Reg. at 7756. The substantial majority of states permitting wage assignments impose restrictions on their use. Id. Similarly, several states prohibit the taking of non-possessory, non-purchase security interests in household goods, and others place limitations on their use. Id. at 7781-82 & n. 10. Both the NCCF study and the Creditor Remedies Project, which provided the impetus for the Commission's rulemaking, see supra pp. 961-962, delineated the creditor abuses and concomitant consumer injuries entailed in the use of HHG security interests and wage assignments, and recommended that the use of these creditor remedies be substantially restricted or eliminated. In addition, the Commission stated its opinion that: 110 [T]he use of blanket security interests to exhort an overextended or unemployed consumer to make a decision which may lead to increased financial difficulties has many of the attributes of economic duress. Threats to seize the personal possessions of a consumer and his or her family clearly meet many of the criteria for economic duress, especially given the dire financial circumstances in which the consumer finds himself. Although the Commission has premised its findings regarding the unfairness of threats to seize household goods on the resulting psychological and economic injury to consumers, as demonstrated by information contained in the rulemaking record, these common law doctrines provide evidence of public policy supporting the Commission's findings. 111 49 Fed.Reg. at 7765 (footnotes omitted). Thus the Commission's exercise of its unfairness authority in proscribing the use of HHG security interests and wage assignments can be fairly viewed as falling within the Commission's authority to take into consideration principles of equity and public policy and to proscribe acts or practices found to violate those principles. 112
113 Section 18(a)(1)(B) of the FTC Act empowers the Commission to prescribe rules which define with specificity acts or practices which are unfair or deceptive acts or practices and to include requirements prescribed for the purpose of preventing such acts or practices. Petitioners claim that by branding the very taking of a security interest in household goods or an assignment of future wages as unfair practices, the FTC has not defined with specificity any unfair practice but has merely prescribed a requirement for preventing unfair practices. See AFSA Brief at 55. The petitioners' argument is predicated on the Second Circuit's holding in Katharine Gibbs School (Inc.) v. FTC, 612 F.2d 658 (2d Cir.1979). In Katharine Gibbs, the Second Circuit set aside the Commission's Vocational Schools Rule because [i]nstead of defining with specificity those acts or practices which it found to be unfair or deceptive, the Commission contented itself with treating violations of its 'requirements prescribed for the purpose of preventing' unfair practices as themselves the unfair practices. Id. at 662. The court held that the rule must define specific unfair practices; the unfair practices cannot be defined in terms of future violations of the rule's remedial requirements. Even if this court were to adopt the Second Circuit's view of section 18(a) expressed in Katharine Gibbs, we would still find it inapplicable to the present case. 30 114 In promulgating the Vocational Schools Rule at issue in Katharine Gibbs, the FTC was concerned about unfair and deceptive advertising, sales, and enrollment practices engaged in by some of the schools. Id. at 661. However, rather than defining the specific advertising, sales, and enrollment practices deemed unfair, the FTC adopted a rule regulating tuition refund policies. The rationale behind the rule was to alter the incentive structure for obtaining enrollments by making it financially burdensome for a school to accept any student who was unlikely to complete the course for any reason. Id. at 663. Although the Commission did not fault existing refund policies, it provided, nonetheless, that any failure to comply with its newly prescribed refund obligations would constitute an unfair or deceptive act or practice in connection with the sale or promotion of a course. Id. The FTC's rule, thus, penalized every vocational school for every dropout regardless of cause, leading the Second Circuit to conclude that there was no rational connection between the prescribed, universally applicable refund provisions and the prevention of specific unfair enrollment practices. 31 115 The provisions of the Credit Practices Rule at issue in this case are clearly distinguishable from the provisions of the Vocational Schools Rule set aside in Katharine Gibbs. The prescribed refund requirements of the Vocational Schools Rule were designed to prevent unrelated, unspecified unfair enrollment advertising and sales practices. In contrast, the Credit Practices Rule identifies specific practices, namely the taking of HHG security interests and wage assignments as collateral, as per se unfair and prohibits those practices. 32 See 49 Fed.Reg. at 7745 (The rule defines the use of such clauses or procedures, in se, to be an unfair practice.). We agree with the Commission that [b]ecause ... the direct relationship between the unfair practice and the proscription of that practice is apparent on the face of each ... provision, there is no reason to set out the two separately. Id. The Commission having defined with specificity the acts or practices deemed unfair has fully complied with the statutory requirements of section 18(a)(1)(B). 116