Markets Wired

The Federal Trade Commission will host a workshop in Washington, DC, following the close of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) comment period for its ongoing petroleum market manipulation rulemaking. The one-day workshop will be free and open to the public. Parties interested in participating as panel members must submit a comment in response to the recently issued NPRM – see http://www.ftc.gov/os/2008/08/P082900nprm.pdf – as well as a request to participate. The deadline for submitting comments and requests to participate in the workshop is September 18, 2008.

Commission staff anticipate exploring a variety of topics at the workshop, including the bases for the proposed rule; the meaning of fraud and deception under the proposed rule; the element of intent under the proposed rule; and whether proving a violation of the proposed rule should require a showing of price effects, and, if so, how those effects might be demonstrated.

The date of the workshop, as well as a tentative agenda, will be forthcoming. Information about the rulemaking, including comments received in response to the Advance Notice of Rulemaking and the NPRM, can be found on the Commission’s Web site.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, click: http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.shtm or call 1-877-382-4357. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,600 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. For free information on a variety of consumer topics, click http://ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm.

(FTC File No. P082900)
(Petroleum Workshop final.wpd)