FTC Outlines Sweeping Five-Year Enforcement Plan  

The plan, which covers fiscal years 2026 through 2030, was released under Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. According to an analysis by the law firm Crowell and Moring, the document reaffirms the FTC’s commitment to enforcing the nation’s antitrust and consumer protection laws. Notably, the plan restores a phrase to the agency’s mission statement that had been dropped in recent years, a promise not to unduly burden businesses that compete fairly and deal honestly with consumers. Crowell and Moring says that signals a shift away from what the agency itself has characterized as overregulation.

Still, the firm warns businesses not to interpret that language as a pullback. “Despite this business-friendly framing,” Crowell and Moring writes, “the plan signals robust enforcement across consumer protection, antitrust, and emerging technology, areas that will directly affect in-house counsel’s compliance planning over the coming years.”

On the consumer protection front, the FTC is sharpening its focus on online behavior. The agency’s priorities include fighting fraud and deception, targeting health fraud, and holding large technology platforms accountable for conduct that harms children. The FTC plans to enforce the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA, more aggressively. It also gains new authority under the Take It Down Act, a recently passed law addressing nonconsensual intimate images online.

Advertising practices are also in the crosshairs. The FTC says it will actively scan the internet for potentially misleading claims rather than waiting for consumers to file complaints. Crowell and Moring advises companies to audit their data collection practices, especially those involving minors, and to review marketing claims with fresh eyes.

Related: FTC Nears Settlements in Ad Boycott Probe

The agency’s antitrust agenda is equally ambitious. The FTC views anticompetitive mergers and certain business practices as directly harmful to American workers and consumers, driving up prices, suppressing wages and limiting choices. The plan signals heightened scrutiny of employment-related agreements, including no-poach clauses, non-solicitation provisions and noncompete agreements. The agency also says it plans to examine whether coordination on diversity-related employment metrics has suppressed worker compensation.

For companies pursuing mergers, Crowell and Moring recommends bringing in antitrust counsel early. The FTC has said it will screen transactions efficiently using revised merger review forms and updated Merger Guidelines, and it has made clear it is prepared to litigate rather than accept remedies it views as unenforceable.

Perhaps the most forward-looking section of the plan addresses how the FTC intends to find its targets in the first place. The agency is investing in artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and machine learning to modernize its operations and identify potential violations at greater scale. That means businesses can no longer assume they are off the radar simply because no complaint has been filed against them.

The FTC is also deepening its collaboration with state attorneys general and international regulators. Crowell and Moring flags that parallel state enforcement actions may accompany federal proceedings, and that conduct occurring outside the United States could still draw FTC scrutiny if American consumers are harmed.

For companies with global operations, that cross-border coordination is worth monitoring closely as the agency builds out its new enforcement infrastructure over the coming years.