Federal Trade Commission

The Department of Justice, in a major antitrust review for the Obama administration, will join the Federal Communications Commission in reviewing Comcast Corp.'s deal to take control of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal. The decision settles a tug of war between the department and the Federal Trade Commission, each of which sought to weigh in on the $30-billion deal announced in December. But other recent big media mergers have been swung to Justice Department lawyers, so the decision did not come as a surprise to regulatory insiders.

Federal regulators on Wednesday accused Intel Corp. of abusing its market dominance to stifle competition in a lawsuit that, instead of seeking monetary damages, would impose more painful, fundamental changes on the way the world's leading computer chip maker does business. The suit by the Federal Trade Commission reaches further than any of the other regulatory cases brought in recent years against Intel, which commands about 81% of the world's market for central processing units, the brains of computers and other electronic gear.

Consumer groups petitioned the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday to require that Chrysler vehicles display stickers warning prospective buyers of liability risks. The request comes after Chrysler successfully shed its obligation for past and future product liability claims on vehicles manufactured before May 30, when most of the company's assets were sold to a new company run by the Italian automaker Fiat.

The despised robocall companies that send out illegal recorded calls nationwide to try and get people to buy car warranties or apply for credit cards are among the most secretive operations outside the CIA. Employees are told they can be fired merely for mentioning the name of their employer. But court documents filed this month in a Federal Trade Commission case against a Florida company -- Transcontinental Warranty Inc.

As part of a sweeping nationwide crackdown on "fake charities," the Federal Trade Commission and state officials took actions that forced dozens of groups to shut down or stop making false appeals in the name of police, firefighters and veterans. Among the groups singled out by the FTC as sham nonprofit organizations were three fundraising groups from Santa Ana. The government said the groups raised $19 million from 2005 to 2008 but turned over only 5% of the money to legitimate charities.

Google Inc. acknowledged Thursday that the Federal Trade Commission was making antitrust inquiries into ties between the search giant and Apple Inc., which are increasingly competing in areas such as mobile phones. But Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said that relinquishing his seat on the Apple board of directors "hasn't crossed my mind." "I don't think Google sees Apple as a primary competitor," Schmidt told reporters before the company's annual shareholder meeting in Mountain View.

Take one child. Administer sugar. What happens? Apparently one side effect isn't paying better attention. Cereal giant Kellogg Co. has agreed to settle federal claims that the Grand Rapids, Mich., company falsely advertised the benefits of eating Frosted Mini-Wheats, including that children who ate the cereal got a 20% boost in attentiveness compared with children who skipped breakfast. The Federal Trade Commission decided the claims were a stretch.

Federal government to DirecTV and Comcast cable: What part of Do Not Call didn't you understand? Satellite television provider DirecTV Inc. agreed to pay $2.31 million to settle charges that it made more than 1 million calls to its customers who had -- as was their right -- placed themselves on a Do Not Call list, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday. And why did the company make the calls? To ask the customers to remove themselves from the list, the agency said.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away the Federal Trade Commission's bid to impose antitrust penalties that would have limited the royalties collected by memory-chip technology firm Rambus Inc. The justices, without comment, left intact a federal appeals court decision favoring Rambus, which gets more than 80% of its revenue from royalties.

The Federal Trade Commission's new Internet-advertising guidelines don't put enough pressure on companies to protect consumer data used in targeted marketing campaigns, privacy advocacy groups said. The agency released the voluntary standards Thursday to guide Web marketers' efforts at self-regulation. The FTC report urged advertising providers such as Google Inc.