Federal Trade Commission April 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As required by law, the Federal Trade Commission (the ``FTC'' or ``Commission'') requests public comment on its implementation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (``COPPA'' or ``the Act''), 15 U.S.C. 6501-6508, through the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (``COPPA Rule'' or ``the Rule''). The COPPA Rule imposes certain requirements on operators of Web sites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age and other Web sites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information from a child under 13 years of age. The Commission requests comment on the costs and benefits of the Rule as well as on whether it should be retained, eliminated, or modified. The Commission also requests comment concerning the Rule's effect on: practices relating to the collection and disclosure of information relating to children; children's ability to obtain access to information of their choice online; and the availability of Web sites directed to children. At the end of the FTC's review, the agency will submit a report to Congress assessing the implementation of the Rule. All interested persons are hereby given notice of the opportunity to submit written data, views, and arguments concerning the Rule. As explained in a separate document being published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, the Commission is also issuing a final amendment to the Rule to extend the sliding scale mechanism, which allows Web site operators to use e-mail with additional verification steps to obtain verifiable parental consent for the collection of personal information from children for internal use by the Web site operator, until the conclusion of this broader review.

The FTC intends to conduct a survey of consumers to advance its understanding of the incidence of consumer fraud and to allow the FTC to better serve people who experience fraud. The survey is a follow-up to the FTC's Consumer Fraud Survey conducted in 2003 and released in August 2004. Before gathering this information, the FTC is seeking public comments on its proposed consumer research. Comments will be considered before the FTC submits a request for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520.

The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or practices or unfair methods of competition. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both the allegations in Count III of the complaint and the terms of the consent orderembodied in the consent agreementthat would settle these allegations.