Federal Trade Commission April 22, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to Section 811 of Subtitle B of Title VIII of The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (``EISA''),\1\ the Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'' or ``FTC'') is issuing a Revised Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (``RNPRM''). The revised proposed Rule in this RNPRM would prohibit any person, directly or indirectly, in connection with the purchase or sale of crude oil, gasoline, or petroleum distillates at wholesale, from knowingly engaging in any act, practice, or course of businessincluding the making of any untrue statement of material factthat operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon any person, or intentionally failing to state a material fact that under the circumstances renders a statement made by such person misleading, provided that such omission distorts or tends to distort market conditions for any such product. Violations of the revised proposed Rule, if such Rule is adopted, would require proof by a preponderance of the evidence. Anyone violating an FTC rule promulgated under Section 811 of EISA, such as this revised proposed Rule would be if adopted, may face civil penalties of up to $1 million per violation per day, in addition to any relief available to the Commission under the Federal Trade Commission Act (``FTC Act'').\2\ The Commission invites written comments on issues raised by the revised proposed Rule and seeks answers to the specific questions set forth in Section IV.I. of this RNPRM.