(WASHINGTON) — Today, President Trump fired the Democratic commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission in a destructive partisan attack on the nation’s primary consumer protection agency. The FTC is now the latest agency to see its Democratic commissioners fired without cause, joining (among others) the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Election Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board — part of a sweeping attack on the federal agencies that protect U.S. workers, voters, and consumers. All this despite early and swift pushback from judges hearing similar illegal firing cases.
“The President continues his rampage against consumer protection agencies with these destructive, unprecedented, and baseless firings,” said Alexandra Reeve Givens, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology. “It is now perfectly clear that President Trump will fire anyone who might stand in his way, regardless of the legal protections designed to preserve agencies’ independence.
“The FTC is an independent agency for a reason: its independence allows it to enforce the laws and protect American consumers without favor. These political firings fly in the face of the Commission’s bipartisan history and nearly 100 years of Supreme Court precedent. And it’s consumers who will pay the price.”
The FTC is responsible for enforcing one of the nation’s broadest consumer protection statutes, the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive practices, including in advertising, privacy, and competition. The agency has recently been actively protecting consumers against the harmful data practices of data brokers, particularly around their rampant and unfettered collection and use of precise geolocation information. It also is in charge of protecting children’s privacy online, and recently enforced the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act against Epic Games and Google (Youtube Kids).
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The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is the leading nonpartisan, nonprofit organization fighting to advance civil rights and civil liberties in the digital age. We shape technology policy, governance, and design with a focus on equity and democratic values. Established in 1994, CDT has been a trusted advocate for digital rights since the earliest days of the internet. The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has a Europe Office in Brussels, Belgium.