FTC faces big changes with Trump

The Federal Trade Commission could be facing big changes under President Donald Trump. President Trump must fill three vacant commissioner seats and decide on a chairman — moves that Republicans hope could push the regulatory agency in a business-friendly direction. The agency’s primary role is to police companies for deceptive practices and to review high-profile mergers to determine if they are in consumers’ best interests.

President Trump himself is no stranger to the FTC, having had his own run-ins with its regulators as a businessman. In 1988, he agreed in a settlement with the FTC to pay a $750,000 fine for failing to disclose a stock purchase in a planned merger. And in recent years, students of the now-defunct Trump University filed complaints with the FTC alleging the school misled and overcharged them. In 2016, Trump agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit against the school.