AMG Cap. Mgmt., LLC v. FTC

Section 13(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act does not explicitly authorize the Federal Trade Commission to obtain court-ordered monetary relief.

Petitioner ran companies that gave short term loans to borrowers, and profited from misleading customers and hiding terms and conditions. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against Petitioner for violating §5(a) of the FTC Act (the Act). The District Court granted the FTC’s permanent injunction against Petitioner pursuant to §13(b) of the Act and directed Petitioner to pay an amount in restitution and disgorgement. Petitioner argued on appeal that §13(b) does not grant equitable monetary relief. The Act does not authorize the FTC to obtain this monetary relief through court order. The Court considered the text of the statute and found that it only concerned injunctive relief. Injunctive relief is distinguished from equitable monetary relief because the statutory intent is to stop the unlawful acts while the FTC determines their lawfulness. The Court found it unlikely that Congress intended §13(b) to grant the FTC such authority which would circumvent the FTC’s administrative proceedings. Therefore, section 13(b) as written does not grant the FTC power to obtain equitable monetary relief. REMANDED.