CLEAR Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2690 To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to require annual reports to Congress regarding the status of investigations of unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 20, 2021 Mr. GUTHRIE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to require annual reports to Congress regarding the status of inves- tigations of unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Clarifying Legality and 4 Enforcement Action Reasoning Act’’ or the ‘‘CLEAR 5 Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:38 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2690.IH H2690 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2690 IH SEC. 2. ANNUAL REPORTING ON THE STATUS OF INVES- 1 TIGATIONS. 2 Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 3 U.S.C. 45) is amended by adding at the end the following 4 new subsection: 5 ‘‘(o) REPORT ON INVESTIGATIONS.— 6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall, on 7 an annual basis, transmit a report to Congress on 8 investigations with respect to unfair or deceptive 9 acts or practices in or affecting commerce (within 10 the meaning of subsection (a)(1)), detailing— 11 ‘‘(A) the number of such investigations the 12 Commission has commenced; 13 ‘‘(B) the number of such investigations the 14 Commission has closed with no official agency 15 action; 16 ‘‘(C) the disposition of such investigations, 17 if such investigations have concluded and re- 18 sulted in official agency action; and 19 ‘‘(D) for each such investigation that was 20 closed with no official agency action, a descrip- 21 tion sufficient to indicate the legal analysis sup- 22 porting the Commission’s decision not to con- 23 tinue such investigation, and the industry sec- 24 tors of the entities subject to each such inves- 25 tigation. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:38 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2690.IH H2690 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2690 IH ‘‘(2) PRIVACY PROTECTION.—The description 1 required under paragraph (1)(D) shall not include 2 the identity of the person who is the subject of an 3 investigation or any other information that identifies 4 the person. 5 ‘‘(3) FTC WEBSITE POSTING.—The Commis- 6 sion shall make the most recent report required 7 under this subsection publicly available on the Com- 8 mission’s website, and maintain such report on such 9 website until the next report is transmitted to Con- 10 gress.’’. 11 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:38 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2690.IH H2690 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS