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Expanding Local Enforcement Of State And Federal Consumer Protection Laws, Kathleen S. Morris

Publications

This Article calls on Congress and the state legislatures to grant large cities and counties standing to enforce the Federal Trade Commission Act (the FTC Act) and its state statutory counterparts (or little Acts). The FTC Act, a federal law, prohibits businesses from engaging in any "unlawful," "unfair," or "deceptive" acts or practices, and the little Acts apply similarly broad prohibitions in all fifty states. This fifty-one-statute consumer protection regime - which has been the law of the land for several decades - carries enormous promise to halt a wide range of unlawful and harmful corporate practices in their earliest …