All posts tagged "Ftc"

A fired Federal Trade Commission official said Saturday that a recent Supreme Court ruling favoring President Donald Trump will leave billionaires "running wild."

During an appearance on MS NOW, Rebecca Slaughter talked about her Supreme Court case against Trump in which she and another former Federal Trade Commission commissioner, both Democratic appointees, challenged their dismissals.

"I was just profoundly disappointed," Slaughter said about the Supreme Court decision that allowed Trump to fire independent agency commissioners at will....

The Supreme Court is expected to gut a century-old legal precedent and expand Trump's power over independent agencies, per a legal expert.

Lisa Graves, a legal investigative researcher and Chief Justice John Roberts biographer, warned in a recent piece about how SCOTUS will rule in Trump v. Slaughter later this month. She fears the court will overturn Humphrey's Executor, the 1931 precedent that bars presidents from firing Federal Trade Commission commissioners without cause.

"This is a choice—an illegitimate one—not a necessity or requirement of the law, no matter what John Roberts and his fellow Republican appointees on the Supreme Court may claim," Graves wrote. "Their edict will be dressed up in the language of 'separation of powers,' but that is merely a costume for this extraordinary power grab."...

On Friday, a nonprofit forced the Trump administration to unseal a damning complaint lodged by the Biden-era Federal Trade Commission against Pepsi for colluding with Walmart to raise food prices across the nation. New un-redacted information claims FTC Chair Ferguson and his colleague Mark Meador (both Trump appointees) were hiding the mechanics of Pepsi’s and Wal-Mart’s price fixing.

Pepsi is a “must-have” product for grocery stores, and Walmart is also massively powerful,” reports BIG Newsletter writer Matt Stoller. Critics say Pepsi allegedly engages in price discrimination to maintain the approval of Walmart, its biggest buyer — even going so far as to police prices at smaller rival stores. And it prepares reports for Walmart showing them their pricing advantages on Pepsi products.

When the “price gap” between Wal-Mart and its tiny rivals narrow too much, Pepsi tracks where consumers were buying Pepsi products outside of Walmart. It keeps logs on stores who would “self-fund” Pepsi product discounts, nicknaming them “offenders” and then raise their stock price, forcing them to carry those costs down to their customers....

WASHINGTON — America’s in the midst of its first AI-fueled election. Duping voters in 2024 — a year where “deepfakes” are expected to supplant our current meme-driven political unreality — will be easier than ever.

Bogus but hyper-realistic videos of Donald Trump secretly plotting with Russian President Vladimir Putin or President Joe Biden in a secret White House confab with antifa activists? Entirely fake speeches delivered by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) or Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)?

All possible now. Just watch the wouldn’t-have-been-possible-in-2020 deepfake video starring a computer generated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s depicted as desperately trying to convince his colleagues in “The Office” that he’s not wearing women’s clothes. Donald Trump Jr. is among the people who've shared it on social media in recent days....

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Larry Page should put in a call to Bill Gates.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US regulators have launched a probe into Google's lucrative search and advertising business in a move that could pose the most serious legal challenge yet to the Internet giant.