Theodora McCormick, a Member of the Firm in the Litigation and Health Care and Life Sciences practices, in the firm’s Princeton and Newark offices, was quoted in Natural Products Insider, in “Trump Picks Antitrust Lawyer to Head FTC, Leaving Uncertain Impact on Consumer Protection.”

Following is an excerpt:

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC, or Commission) will likely soon be controlled by a Republican majority, but some lawyers familiar with the agency said they do not expect a sea change in policies impacting consumer protection issues, such as the types of enforcement cases brought against the dietary supplement industry. …

Based on Trump’s pick to lead the Commission, regulatory attorney Theodora McCormick of the law firm Epstein Becker & Green P.C. opined FTC’s focus will be in the antitrust arena. The Commission is responsible for enforcing antitrust laws to promote competition and protect consumers from anticompetitive business practices and mergers. It also has the responsibility to crack down on deceptive and unfair acts and practices, such as fraudulent weight loss advertisements. …

McCormick, whose experience includes defending dietary supplement companies in advertising disputes with the Commission, echoed Bond’s observations.

“I think the FTC is going to have much less of an appetite to try to impose these heightened drug-style clinical trial standards that they had been trying to impose on supplement companies,” the New Jersey-based attorney said in a phone interview. “I just don’t see this new administration having the same appetite for that.”

Under the Obama administration, the Commission proved successful in negotiating consent decrees in which some companies facing the threat of FTC litigation agreed to randomized controlled clinical studies, she observed. On the other hand, McCormick noted the Commission in recent years has lost some high-profile court cases related to advertising disputes with the dietary supplement industry, including an FTC lawsuit filed against Bayer Corp. for allegedly violating a consent decree.

While McCormick pointed out the Commission will always target individuals “making just completely bogus claims,” she added, “[T]his idea of trying to impose these heightened drug-style clinical trials on supplement makers is going to be shelled for the foreseeable future.”

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.