David Vladeck to Head Bureau of Consumer Protection

by Deepak Gupta

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz today announced six senior staff appointments, drawn from the private sector, the public interest community, academia, and government. Most notable (at least to us) is the appointment of former Public Citizen litigator and current Georgetown law professor David Vladeck to head up the FTC's consumer protection activities. From the FTC's press release:

David C. Vladeck, who will serve as Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, has been a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching federal courts, government processes, civil procedure, and First Amendment litigation. He co-directed the Center’s Institute for Public Representation, a clinical law program for civil rights, civil liberties, First Amendment, open government, and regulatory litigation. Vladeck previously spent almost 30 years with Public Citizen Litigation Group, including 10 years as Director. He has argued a number of First Amendment and civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and more than 60 cases before the federal courts of appeal and state courts of last resort.

Needless to say, we think this is really terrific news. David is a tenacious advocate for consumers and is taking up this important post at a time when strong leadership and enforcement on consumer protection issues is sorely needed. Congratulations to David!  The full announcement--listing the other five appointees, including the heads of the agency's antitrust, economics, and policy planning divisions--is posted after the jump.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz has appointed six senior staff members with extensive experience in the private sector, in the public interest community, in academia, and in government.

“We’re delighted to attract such a talented and creative group of people,” Leibowitz said. “Their leadership and expertise will help ensure that the Commission’s work on behalf of American consumers will continue to be effective. We’re very fortunate.”

Richard A. Feinstein, who was appointed Director of the Bureau of Competition, is rejoining the agency from a partnership at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, where he focused on antitrust litigation and counseling. He was formerly an Assistant Director in the Bureau of Competition’s Health Care Services and Products Division, focusing on antitrust enforcement, including anticompetitive practices and mergers involving health care providers and payers, and anticompetitive conduct in the pharmaceutical industry. Feinstein worked previously at McKenna & Cuneo, LLP, and he was a trial attorney and supervisor in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

David C. Vladeck, who will serve as Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, has been a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching federal courts, government processes, civil procedure, and First Amendment litigation. He co-directed the Center’s Institute for Public Representation, a clinical law program for civil rights, civil liberties, First Amendment, open government, and regulatory litigation. Vladeck previously spent almost 30 years with Public Citizen Litigation Group, including 10 years as Director. He has argued a number of First Amendment and civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and more than 60 cases before the federal courts of appeal and state courts of last resort.

Joseph Farrell, who was named Director of the Bureau of Economics, has been a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has been Chair of the Competition Policy Center and an Affiliated Professor in the Haas School of Business. He also has served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Chief Economist for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and as Chief Economist for the Federal Communications Commission. His research has centered on competition policy, compatibility standards, and innovation. Farrell is a Fellow of the Econometric Society.

Susan S. DeSanti, who will be Director of Policy Planning, joins the Commission from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, where her practice has focused on antitrust counseling and litigation in a variety of industries. She previously spent 15 years at the Commission, during which she helped develop federal antitrust policy in standard setting, intellectual property licensing, antitrust and patent issues, generic drug entry, mergers, and joint ventures among competitors. During that time, she served in a variety of positions, including Director of Policy Planning, Deputy General Counsel for Policy Studies, senior attorney advisor to Chairman Robert Pitofsky, and attorney advisor to Commissioner Dennis Yao. In addition to several years in private practice before she joined the Commission, DeSanti recently served as Senior Counsel to the Antitrust Modernization Commission.

Jeanne Bumpus, who was re-appointed as Director of the Office of Congressional Relations, has served in that position since June 2006. She was a principal advisor to Senator John McCain and served as Staff Director and Chief Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Bumpus began her work on Capitol Hill in the office of Washington State Senator Slade Gorton, where she served as Legislative Counsel. Earlier, she worked as an associate in the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle, Washington.

Joni Lupovitz, who will serve as Chief of Staff to the Chairman, joined the FTC in 1999 as an attorney in the Bureau of Consumer Protection’s Division of Enforcement and was promoted to Assistant Director for Enforcement the following year. Since 2005, she has served as an attorney advisor in the Office of Commissioner (now Chairman) Leibowitz, focusing on consumer protection matters. Before joining the FTC, Lupovitz was a partner with McDermott, Will & Emery, where she had a diverse civil litigation and administrative practice.

Comments

[Gold Plated Rings]

I really like this write! I enjoy it so much! thanks for give me a good reading moment!

[4 week cna classes]

These articles are fantastic; the information you show us is interesting for everybody and is really good written. It’s just great!! Do you want to know something more?

Read it...: Great investment opportunity in Costa Rica

[generic adipex]

I Love this style of posting.

[Holiday Travel Bureau]

This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.
Holiday Travel Bureau
*********
kathy

[sildenafil citrate]

This one is merely informative o it's a really serious way of change our minds.

[Job]

Interesting really caught my attention and there are lots of useful information for me.

[business opportunity]

Love the post, it immediately caught my interest especially the fact that it came from people with different views.

[Display Centres]

Nice post! Its is a combined idea post of people in position and that I think what makes it interesting for me.

[RSA]

I am really interested in what you wrote here. I hope you give me more interesting topics to read on.

[Dinheiro]

Nice post, very cool!!!

[Ganhar Dinheiro]

Very interesting! Congratulations!

[Ron]

Okay, I agree. Cartels are not always the bes thing for the rest of us.

[renda extra]

Great post, i've already subscribed to your feed. thanks.

[JMT]

The acid test of the commitment of David Vladeck, new Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection for the FTC, to real consumer protection will be his ability and willingness to stand up to the Direct Selling Association (DSA), which has been taken over by MLMs (multi-level marketing companies, or endless chain entrepreneuring schemes – a.k.a., product-based pyramid schemes). The DSA has wielded enormous influence over the FTC during the Bush years, with Amway having been one of Bush’s top supporters.

It has recently been proven from the financial records of several MLMs that approximately 99% of MLM participants lose money. So to offset this reality and to enhance recruitment success, MLMs routinely misrepresent actual incomes of participants, dropout rates, background of founders, etc. Also, since many MLM recruiters begin with a hard sell of “potions and lotions” with alleged magical healing or anti-aging properties, misrepresentations of products and services has become endemic to MLM success. Recruits commit to ongoing purchases in order to qualify for hoped for financial rewards and a lifetime of super health.

During the Bush administration, top officials friendly to the MLM industry were appointed, and key officials who had the skills to unravel the deceptions practiced by MLMs were transferred out of consumer protection. Action against product-based pyramid schemes virtually ground to a halt. The DSA/MLM cartel has been allowed to defraud millions of consumers worldwide out of tens of billions of dollars in the aggregate.

The FTC had proposed a Business Opportunity Rule in 2006 that would have included a “cooling off” period before investing in a “business opportunity’ program and required disclosure of meaningful information, such as average income of participants, cancellation and refund statistics – similar to what is required by franchisors, but in much greater detail. The one supplied by MLMs could easily have been printed by the MLM company on a single sheet of paper to be handed out to prospects.

But such disclosure could hurt recruitment. Who would join a program if they knew their chances of profiting were close to zero – with the exception of the founders and those at or near the top of their respective pyramid of participants? The DSA sprung into defensive action, providing form letters for millions of participants who hoped some day to realize a profit from their schemes. Approximately 17,000 persons wrote to object to including MLM in the Proposed Rule, as it would be “too great a burden” for them to generate and supply the information. The DSA then cashed in its extensive political capital (political donations and implied votes) by getting about 80 Congressmen to sign onto a letter insisting that MLM be excluded from the Rule. Last year, the FTC caved and proposed a Revised Rule exempting MLM.

All informed independent consumer advocates were appalled at the corrupt maneuvering underlying this exemption. If there was ever a business model that begs for meaningful disclosure, it is MLM. In fact, the very mission of the FTC to protect consumers against unfair and deceptive practices is at stake. Jon Liebowitz and his new director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, David Vladeck, will have to choose between protecting consumers and protecting the DSA/MLM cartel.