Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On October 19, 2017, the White House announced that President Donald J. Trump plans to nominate two individuals to serve as commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission. President Trump selected Joseph Simons to lead the FTC as its chairman for a seven-year term, beginning September 26, 2017. Simons’ background primarily has focused on antitrust matters. From June 2001 to August 2003, he led the FTC’s antitrust initiative as Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.

In addition, Rohit Chopra will be nominated to serve as a commissioner for the remainder of a seven-year term that is set to expire on September 25, 2019. Chopra has focused on consumer protection issues involving financial services, most recently as a Senior Fellow at the Consumer Federation of America. He previously served as Assistant Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

With these two commissioner nominations, there remains one commissioner vacancy yet to be appointed among the FTC’s five commissioner seats.