Over the past decade, the FTC has increasingly wielded its enforcement authority to extract settlements from businesses that have been victimized by data-security breaches and that had no formal notice of the standards the FTC accuses them of violating. The Chamber filed an amicus brief in the Eleventh Circuit arguing that the FTC’s authority to prohibit unfair trade practices does not include the authority to establish general data-security policy, and the FTC should not be permitted to circumvent the legislative process by establishing rules through private enforcement actions.
William S. Consovoy and Michael H. Park of Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC served as co-counsel for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center.
