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Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons released a summary of the agency’s 2019 Annual Highlights today, calling attention to the Commission’s ongoing efforts to protect consumers and promote a competitive marketplace.

The Highlights note that FTC actions have led to more than $232 million in refunds to consumers across the country, with $136 million sent directly from the FTC. Over the last four years, consumers have cashed more than $1 billion in FTC refund checks. The Highlights also note that the Commission continued its efforts to challenge harmful mergers and stop anticompetitive business conduct. For example, the Commission took enforcement actions to preserve competition in health care and consumer products markets and established a new Technology Enforcement Division to investigate potential anticompetitive conduct in digital platform markets.

“We continued to advance our aggressive enforcement agenda in 2019,” Chairman Simons said. “In addition to the record-breaking privacy settlements with Facebook, and Google/YouTube, the FTC challenged a host of anticompetitive mergers and conduct, and took action to stop consumer fraud and deception in the marketplace.”

Certain statistics are available in the Stats & Data 2019 infographic. Archives of past FTC Annual Highlights and Reports also are available online.

A copy of the full report can be found here.

The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition, and protect and educate consumers. You can learn more about consumer topics and file a consumer complaint online or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357). Like the FTC on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, read our blogs, and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.