Post-AMG Scorecard

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The Supreme Court in AMG foreclosed the FTC’s ability to pursue monetary remedies under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act. That, however, AMG has not stopped the FTC from pursuing monetary relief directly in court, while attempting to bypass the statutory prerequisite of an administrative proceeding. The FTC is continuing to use Section 13(b) of the Act to attempt to obtain preliminary and permanent injunctive relief. At the same time, the Commission is coupling its 13(b) requests for injunctive relief with other (sometimes creative) statutory requests for money.

Given the Commission’s newfound interest in exploring non-13(b) statutory avenues to obtain monetary remedies, we have expanded our Post-AMG chart to include a wider swath of ongoing cases in which the FTC is attempting to collect money absent the use of 13(b). The latest version of our expanded chart follows.…

Continue Reading Post-AMG Scorecard: The FTC Pivots to Other Statutory Bases for Monetary Relief

As AMG recedes further into the past, lower courts are becoming more comfortable disposing of 13(b) actions where the proceedings are attempting to obtain monetary restitution as a matter of course. In many instances below, the FTC has conceded its inability to obtain monetary relief and has focused on the injunctive relief it seeks. However, there are still outstanding cases wherein, despite AMG, the FTC refuses to concede defeat on the issue of monetary relief under Section 13(b).

Latest update follows.
Continue Reading Post-AMG Scorecard (Updated): FTC Claims for Monetary Relief in 13(b) Actions Dwindle

Section 13(b)logThe ripple effects continue from the Supreme Court’s holding in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC, explaining that Section 13(b) of the FTC Act does not allow (and never did allow) monetary remedies.

In some cases, the FTC has stricken equitable monetary remedies entirely by removing those requests for relief in amended complaints. In others, the FTC is attempting to retain its request for monetary relief by newly tying it to another statutory provision. In still others, the Agency has requested that courts ignore AMG, because Congress may, at some unspecified future date, amend the statute.

Latest update follows.…

Continue Reading Post-AMG Scorecard (Updated): Different Roads Forward for the FTC in Pending Cases

Last Month, in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC, the Supreme Court ruled that Section 13(b) of the FTC Act does not allow for monetary remedies. While the importance of this ruling is plain, its implications are only now becoming more clear.   Just yesterday, for example, in FTC v. Cardiff, a California federal court found the FTC liable to pay all of the Receiver’s fees from the date of the AMG ruling going forward. The Court explained that it would be inequitable for the defendants to pay these fees, now that the Supreme Court has clarified that the 13(b) relief provided only allowed for an injunction.

This is the first instance we know of where the FTC has been required to pay a Receiver’s fees during the pendency of a 13(b) injunction.

As we’ve discussed in earlier posts, the FTC has asked Congress to rewrite the statute in a way that would allow it to unambiguously go straight to Federal Court to obtain money judgments. For now, however, the FTC can no longer rely on Section 13(b) to provide anything other than injunctive relief.  As Cardiff illustrates, this will mean different things in the dozens of enforcement actions that are presently pending.

The following table summarizes relevant post-AMG action in these cases.  Our team will provide periodic updates.
Continue Reading Post-AMG Scorecard: The FTC is Required to Pay Receiver’s fees in Cardiff