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For Immediate Release: November 04, 2011
Attorneys General Advocate for Stronger Enforcement of The Federal Trade Commission Act
Washington D.C. -- The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) sent a letter today signed by 39 state and territorial Attorneys General to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and its Bureau of Competition requesting greater enforcement of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA) to deter foreign manufacturers from using stolen information technology and combat unfair competitive practices.
Attorneys General are “seeking ways to use the traditional power of our offices to address the unfair advantage that results when foreign and other manufacturers use stolen information technology, including pirated software, to illegally slash their costs. Such unfair competition hurts law-abiding businesses in our states, costing jobs and slowing economic recovery,” the NAAG letter states. One example offered is a Washington-based paper mill competing with a Mexican paper manufacturer that uses over $10 million in stolen software.
In addition to their own state efforts, the Attorneys General are urging the federal government “to consider how the unfair method of competition prohibition in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act itself can be brought to bear on this problem at the federal level. Your leadership in this effort is particularly important given the fact that not all states have enacted versions of the Federal Trade Commission Act or other laws that could be used to address these serious competitive problems.”
A copy of the NAAG letter can be found here: http://www.naag.org/sign-on_archive.php
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The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), www.naag.org, was founded in 1907 to help Attorneys General fulfill the responsibilities of their office and to assist in the delivery of high quality legal services to the states and territorial jurisdictions.
