Tell Congress to Stop FTC's Power Grab

The Federal Trade Commission has made a ruling against food manufacturer POM Wonderful that institutes a new and impossibly strict standard for making health claims about its products in advertising: the agency will require double-blind random-controlled trials for such claims in the future. This is the standard used by the FDA when approving drugs! The FTC is supposed to regulate advertising, not decide what is a drug. Its mandate is to ensure that advertisements are not deceptive or misleading—something that certainly does not require the pharmaceutical RTC standard.

There is no statute that justifies this. The agency is making up law without congressional approval. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) tried and failed to give the agency the power to do this. In 2010, Waxman offered an amendment that would have given the FTC expanded powers and rulemaking authority. (It lost that authority in the 1980s because Congress thought the FTC was abusing it.) The amendment failed, but the agency is now making new and unauthorized rules anyway.

Contact your senators and representative, and tell them you won’t put up with the FTC’s naked power grab. Tell them this is the same abuse of power that made Congress remove the agency’s rulemaking authority three decades ago. Ask them to take action against the FTC’s blatant lawlessness and disregard of Congress.