In a February 2, 2024 keynote speech to antitrust enforcers and practitioners, Commissioner Alvaro M. Bedoya argued that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) should challenge worker misclassification as a violation of the FTC Act’s ban on “unfair methods of competition.” According to Commissioner Bedoya, misclassifying workers, such as independent contractors, takes “billions from working people” and enables companies acting improperly to outperform their competitors—a practice that he said should be stopped at its “incipiency” under Section 5 of the FTC Act. In this alert, we address:
