Word: ftc
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Harvard-trained lawyer who had a corporate practice in Grand Rapids, Engman was appointed to the FTC chairmanship in 1973. The Nixon White House evidently wanted a reliably controllable chairman to replace prickly, independent Miles W. Kirkpatrick, who revived the long calcified FTC as a trade watchdog and riled the business community with his emphasis on consumer protection. But instead of taming the FTC, Engman stepped up its activity. Hardly a week passes that the 1,600-man agency does not announce some new rule, investigation or lawsuit. Its principal targets have been monopoly, unfair influence, industrial or professional conspiracy...
That philosophy may find the FTC attacking business methods in one regard, supporting them in another. Thus the commission advocates the banning of advertising that Engman deems deceptive because it unfairly attracts buyers. Nonetheless, Engman is vigorously for advertising, which he believes is necessary if consumers are to "make a rational choice" among competing products. The FTC recently acted to permit pharmacists to advertise the price of prescription drugs (TIME, June 16). Engman would also like to break what he terms the "conspiracies of silence" by the closely knit associations of doctors, lawyers and funeral directors...
Lawyer Engman does not use the term conspiracy lightly. He means it in its strict antitrust sense. Engman's FTC has been quick-too quick, some business critics say-to deploy the key weapon that the commission shares with the Justice Department: the power to press antitrust charges. To date, Engman's legal staff has brought no fewer than 31 antitrust suits, most notably its 1973 complaint against Exxon and seven other big U.S. oil companies. The FTC's argument: the firms control so much of the petroleum business-from wellhead through refinery to gasoline pump-that...
Businessmen, Engman observes wryly, "love free enterprise but hate competition, which is something for the other guy." He sees the FTC as "the policeman on the economic beat," charged with ensuring that free competition survives. Yet though he wants smaller businesses to survive, he has no sympathy for inefficiency. In fact, his assault on outmoded federal regulatory agencies stems from his belief that they perpetuate poor business practices. He argues that the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Interstate Commerce Commission have allowed the regulated transportation industries to become "federal protectorates living in a cozy world of 'cost-plus...
...trial of the case before an FTC administrative-law judge may be a year off, and the companies could appeal any unfavorable ruling through the federal courts. If the FTC eventually prevails, the three companies could be forced to pay triple damages to any competitors or consumers who win lawsuits. The FTC might also seek to have one or more of the three big rental companies booted out of some airports and replaced by smaller competitors...