United States - FTC Issues Report to Congress on Use of its Enhanced Authority Under the U.S. SAFE WEB Act

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a report to Congress examining how the agency has used the expanded law enforcement authority Congress provided in the U.S. SAFE WEB Act to protect Ameriican consumers since the Act was signed into law on December 22, 2006. The SAFE WEB Act authorizes the FTC to share information and work cooperatively with foreign law enforcement agencies to protect consumers from cross-border harm. The report, “The U.S. SAFE WEB Act: The First Three Years”, is available on the FTC’s Web site and as a link to this press release. The report details how the agency has used its new authority to protect consumers in the global economy. For example, the FTC shared non-public information pursuant to the Act with foreign authorities, including the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, to shut down a vast international spam network that sent billions of e-mails peddling bogus products to U.S. and foreign consumers. The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs provided the FTC with substantial investigative assistance and, as a result of this cooperation, both the FTC and the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs initiated successful enforcement actions shutting down this fraudulent operation. In addition to other relief, the FTC obtained a $15.15 million default judgment against the principal operator of the global spam network in FTC v. Atkinson. The report makes clear that this kind of cross-border cooperation is critical to the FTC’s ability to combat the types of global scams that consumers increasingly face.

For more information, please go to: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/12/safeweb.shtm.