Senate Commerce Committee homes in on consumer protection and enforcement in an era of rampant COVID-19-related scams

Consumer protection and data privacy have come into focus on Capitol Hill over the past few weeks. One week after the leaders of Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee, the Senate Commerce Committee held ahearingwith the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on this topic. The FTC目标to protect consumers and businesses from “anticompetitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices through law enforcement, advocacy, and education.” The hearing, titled “Oversight of the Federal Trade Commission” focused on the rise in online scams during the COVID-19 pandemic and how to make it easier for the FTC to protect consumers. The senators’ discussion with the FTC chair and commissioners was informed by expertquestionsprovided by the第一天项目, a science and technology policy project that is developing policy proposals for the next Administration. These questions focused on how the FTC plans to keep up with the consumer risks brought by rapidly changing technology, especially from the major tech companies, and risks brought on by scams from current events, such as the pandemic.

There are numerous scams related to COVID-19 and they can be hard to detect. They range from price gouging and selling defective products to people pretending to be contact tracers, those who claim to provide “miracle” cures, and callers pretending to be from the U.S. government. According to the FTC, these pandemic-related scams have成本Americans over $13 million this year and this number is only growing. Out of the 100 million phishing emails blocked by Google each day, it is estimated that about1800万of them reference the coronavirus. Others attempt to marketproducts这种声称可以治愈COVID-19，例如胶体银（悬浮在液体中的微型银颗粒），实际上对人的健康有害。

To combat these scams, the FTC has produced详细的指导适用于企业和消费者。但是，执行消费者保护规则可能具有挑战性。具体而言，FTC的法规并没有跟上不断发展的互联网格局，并且骗局利用了这一点。专员丽贝卡·斯劳特（Rebecca Slaughter）承认(1:21:08) that, especially in cases of price gouging, the FTC’s current oversight abilities are an “imperfect tool.”

Typically when a business or individual is caught using predatory tactics on consumers, the FTC sends out awarning letter。The goal of these letters is to notify the business or individual that they are violating consumer protection rules in theFederal Trade Commission Act。如果掠夺性行为继续进行，它们还威胁着法律后果，例如联邦诉讼。FTC有发送hundreds of letters to companies making misleading claims about COVID-19 treatments and cures, including those pushing treatments with ozone, vitamin C, 5G shields, and ultraviolet light. FTC Chair Joe Simonsnotes(1:49:25) that these letters tend to be effective. However, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)expressed（1:50:35）如果在掠夺性行为的第一次实例之后对书籍有判断，而不必等到第二次发生才能实施更严厉的惩罚，则如何对抗骗局。

Through its work in this area, the Day One Projectemphasizedthat FTC’s penalty structure may not provide proper incentives to deter businesses from engaging in predatory tactics or unfair practices in consumer privacy and protection. Experts working with the Day One Project suggested that new regulations could help. During the hearing, Chair Simons and Commissioner Noah Philips agreed and解释了（分别为1:32:50和2:34:15）允许FTC具有针对规则的能力以及征收民事处罚的能力，可以帮助打击骗局并保护消费者的数据。据西蒙斯（Simons）主席称，该规则制定权威将使FTC更改其定义，以“说明技术变化和业务方法的变化”。

尽管国会需要通过这个有针对性的规则授权，但委员会成员接受了这一想法。随着时间的流逝，消费者的保护和数据隐私环境正在迅速变化，企业利用前所未有的大流行威胁着每天消费者的安全和福祉。从这次听证会上可以明显看出，FTC正在尽力应对这些威胁，但需要更多的帮助才能做到这一点。诸如第一天项目之类的前瞻性组织的投入对于确保国会被告知最紧迫的问题，并拥有解决方案所需的工具至关重要。金博宝正规网址这可能不是关于此主题的最后一次听证会，国会科学政策倡议鼓励其读者参与决策过程，以帮助国会保护公民免受掠夺性商业惯例的影响。

More information can be found about the Day One Project here:https://www.dayoneproject.org/about。

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