Federal regulators don’t often invite the public to tell them what’s wrong with their own rules. But that’s effectively what the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection just did.
What the FTC announced
In a post on its own site, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection announced a new guidance program designed to let industry members and the public flag places where existing FTC rules are unclear, outdated, or creating unintended compliance burdens. The bureau frames it as a way to make sure the agency’s guidance keeps pace with how businesses actually operate, rather than businesses having to guess how a rule adopted years ago applies to a modern product or business model.
Trade press picked up on the announcement quickly. Consumer Finance Monitor described it as an open invitation for industry and the public to identify problems with FTC rules — a notable shift in tone from an agency more often associated with enforcement actions than open comment solicitations. Advertising-law specialists at All About Advertising Law were more cautious, framing the program as offering businesses “answers — and risks,” a reminder that engaging with a regulator, even through an informal comment process, can create its own record.
Why the FTC is doing this now
The new guidance program doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It follows on the heels of other recent moves by the FTC and Department of Justice to formalize how they communicate expectations to businesses before problems escalate into enforcement. Earlier in 2026, the FTC and DOJ jointly extended the public comment deadline on proposed guidance covering business collaborations — a separate but related effort to clarify how companies can work together (on standard-setting, joint ventures, and similar arrangements) without running afoul of antitrust law.
Taken together, these moves suggest an FTC that is trying to reduce regulatory ambiguity proactively, rather than waiting for disputes to reach litigation or a consent order. DLA Piper’s competition-law team rounds up this and other developments in its Inside Competition: September 2026 newsletter, which is a useful primary-source companion if you want the law-firm view of how the FTC’s posture is shifting.
How the program actually works
Based on the FTC’s own description, the process is informal by design: businesses and members of the public can submit input identifying specific rules or guidance documents that are causing confusion, and the Bureau of Consumer Protection will use that feedback to prioritize updates. It’s not a formal rulemaking docket with the procedural protections (and timelines) of a notice-and-comment rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act — it’s closer to a standing suggestion box that the agency has committed to actually reading.
For businesses, that distinction matters. A full listing of the FTC’s current rules is available on the agency’s Rules library, and companies considering whether to flag a rule should understand that anything submitted becomes part of an informal record the FTC can reference later — which is the “risk” side of the equation advertising-law commentators have already flagged.
Who should pay attention
- Compliance and legal teams at consumer-facing companies — especially in advertising, data practices, and consumer finance, where FTC rules are applied broadly and sometimes ambiguously to new business models.
- Trade associations, which are well-positioned to aggregate member feedback into a single, more influential submission rather than having individual companies submit separately.
- Consumer advocates, who can use the same channel to flag rules they believe are under-enforced or too permissive, not just rules businesses find burdensome.
The bottom line
This isn’t a new law, a lawsuit, or an enforcement sweep — it’s a process change at the FTC, and process changes are easy to overlook. But they often shape which rules get revised (or left alone) for years afterward. Businesses with a genuine complaint about an unclear or outdated FTC rule now have a formal-ish channel to raise it, and it’s worth watching what the agency does with the feedback it receives.
Check the FTC’s press releases page periodically for updates on which rules get flagged for revision through this program.
