The FTC has broad powers to begin an investigation. There no need of evidence of an offense before beginning an investigation. 15 U.S.C. § 46(a). As Chris Hoofnagle notes, “The FTC’s investigatory power . . . is akin to an inquisitorial body. On its own initiative, it can investigate a broad range of businesses without any indication of a predicate offense having occurred.”
This is no accident. The end of the Nineteenth Century saw reduced competition and price fixing as a result business growth and consolidation along with various forms of cooperation and collusion. Congress perceived the need for a quick acting, flexible organization with broad investigative powers that could effectively regulate those developments.
Do you think a similar need exists today as technological driven business practices give businesses ever greater power?