WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a burst of enforcement and policy activity spanning college sports, healthcare, consumer data, and corporate mergers, the Federal Trade Commission signaled this month that it is aggressively reasserting its role as a central watchdog of competition and consumer protection.
Over a three-day period in mid-January, the FTC announced actions that reached from NCAA Division I campuses to federal courtrooms, underscoring a sharpened focus on transparency, competition, and accountability across multiple sectors of the U.S. economy.
On January 12, the agency revealed it had sent information requests to 20 universities with Division I athletic programs as part of a probe into whether sports agents are complying with the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act, or SPARTA. The 2004 law requires agents to provide specific disclosures to student athletes and to notify their schools within 72 hours of signing an agency contract. The FTC said it is seeking records showing when schools were notified, the identities of agents involved, and whether complaints have been raised about agent conduct. Universities have until March 23 to respond.
“Agents that work with student athletes have responsibilities and legal requirements including notifying colleges and universities when their student athletes have signed agent contracts,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. The inquiry comes amid continued scrutiny of athlete representation as name, image, and likeness deals reshape college sports.
That same day, the FTC notched a major courtroom win in healthcare antitrust enforcement. A federal judge in Washington granted the agency’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking Edwards Lifesciences Corp.’s proposed $945 million acquisition of JenaValve Technology. The FTC argued the deal would have combined the only two companies with active U.S. clinical trials for transcatheter aortic valve replacement devices designed to treat aortic regurgitation, stifling innovation and competition.
“This is a major victory for American patients and U.S. healthcare innovation,” said Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, after the ruling. Edwards later announced it would abandon the acquisition.
On January 13, the agency escalated its consumer protection efforts by suing JustAnswer LLC and its founder and CEO, Andrew Kurtzig, alleging the online advice platform deceived users into enrolling in costly monthly subscriptions without affirmative consent. The FTC claims consumers were lured by offers of expert advice for $1 or $5, only to be charged recurring fees ranging from $28 to $125. The lawsuit seeks refunds, civil penalties, and an injunction barring the alleged practices.
That same day, the FTC asked a federal court in Nevada to hold payment processor Cliq Inc. and its top executives in contempt for allegedly violating a 2015 FTC order by continuing to process payments for high-risk and allegedly fraudulent merchants. The agency is seeking at least $52.9 million in consumer relief and a permanent ban barring the executives from the payment processing industry.
The enforcement blitz continued January 14 with a landmark data privacy settlement involving General Motors and its OnStar subsidiary. The FTC finalized an order barring GM from sharing drivers’ precise geolocation and behavior data with consumer reporting agencies for five years and requiring affirmative express consent for data collection and sharing for the next two decades. The agency alleged GM failed to adequately disclose how driver data was collected and sold through its Smart Driver feature.
The commission also approved updated antitrust thresholds under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, raising the size-of-transaction reporting threshold for mergers and acquisitions to $133.9 million for 2026. Separate revisions to Clayton Act Section 8 thresholds tightened oversight of interlocking corporate board memberships. Both changes take effect after publication in the Federal Register.
Taken together, the flurry of actions illustrates an FTC moving forcefully on multiple fronts — policing athlete representation, blocking consolidation in lifesaving medical technology, cracking down on deceptive subscriptions, enforcing prior court orders, and tightening guardrails around data privacy and corporate governance.
The Federal Trade Commission said it will continue to promote competition and protect consumers, urging the public to learn more or report fraud at consumer.ftc.gov and ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
For the latest news on everything happening in Chester County and the surrounding area, be sure to follow MyChesCo on Google News and MSN.