Manatt Financial Services Partner
Scott Pearson spoke with
Law360 on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to limit the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) ability to force scammers to swiftly return ill-gotten gains, and how FTC and lawmakers are preparing to reestablish the agency’s power through new legislation. The publication noted that the high court’s decision determined FTC’s Section 13(b) can be used only to halt scams and other ongoing corrupt behavior, but not to obtain court-ordered restitution or disgorgement of profits. This means while the agency can still try to seek monetary relief, it can only do so through complex and time-consuming in-house administrative process,
Law360 added. Pearson explained that it would not be a heavy lift for lawmakers in either party to fix the textual gap in that law as it stands. “There’s no reason they couldn’t just amend Section 13(b) … to say ‘you can go to court, you can seek all of these things,’” from restitution to disgorgement where appropriate, he added.
Pearson is also quoted in Bloomberg Law on this topic.