15 U.S.C. § 46 — Additional powers of Commission

(a) Investigation of persons, partnerships, or corporations. The Commission can gather information about, and investigate, the organization, business, conduct, practices, and management of any person, partnership, or corporation engaged in — or whose business affects — commerce, and how they relate to other companies. This does not cover banks, certain savings and loan institutions, certain federal credit unions, or common carriers already regulated under the Act to Regulate Commerce. (b) Reports of persons, partnerships, and corporations. The Commission can order those same kinds of businesses (with the same exceptions as (a)) to file written annual or special reports answering the Commission's questions about their organization, business, conduct, and relationships with other companies. The Commission can require these reports to be made under oath, and must set a reasonable deadline for filing them, unless it grants more time. (c) Investigation of compliance with antitrust decrees. When a court has entered a final judgment against a company for violating antitrust law, the Commission can investigate, on its own, how well the company is following that judgment — and must investigate if the Attorney General asks it to. The Commission must send the Attorney General a report of its findings and recommendations, and it decides whether to make that report public. (d) Investigations of violations of antitrust statutes. If directed by the President or either house of Congress, the Commission must investigate and report the facts about any alleged antitrust violation by a corporation. (e) Readjustment of business of corporations violating antitrust statutes. If the Attorney General asks, the Commission must investigate and recommend how a company accused of violating antitrust law should restructure its business so it follows the law going forward. (f) Publication of information; reports. The Commission can make public any information it has gathered when doing so serves the public interest. It must send annual and special reports to Congress, along with recommendations for new legislation, and it can decide how best to publish its reports and decisions for public use. However, the Commission cannot make public any trade secret, or any confidential commercial or financial information it receives from someone — except it may share that confidential information with (1) U.S. federal or state law enforcement officers, once an officer of that agency certifies the information will stay confidential and be used only for law enforcement, and (2) foreign law enforcement agencies, under the same conditions that apply elsewhere in this law (section 57b–2(b)). (g) Classification of corporations; regulations. The Commission can, from time to time, classify corporations and make rules and regulations to carry out this part of the law (except as limited by section 57a(a)(2)). (h) Investigations of foreign trade conditions; reports. The Commission can investigate trade conditions in and with foreign countries, when associations, deals, or practices among manufacturers, merchants, or traders — or other conditions — might affect U.S. foreign trade, and report to Congress with recommendations. (i) Investigations of foreign antitrust law violations. Under the International Antitrust Enforcement Assistance Act of 1994, the Commission can investigate possible violations of foreign antitrust laws (as that separate law defines them). (j) Investigative assistance for foreign law enforcement agencies. (1) In general: If a foreign law enforcement agency asks in writing for help investigating or enforcing laws against fraudulent or deceptive commercial practices (or similar practices the Commission also polices, other than U.S. federal antitrust law), the Commission can help — even if the conduct wouldn't violate U.S. law. (2) Type of assistance: The Commission can (A) investigate, using all the powers this law gives it, to gather information and evidence relevant to the request, and (B) when the request involves civil law enforcement — or when the Attorney General refers a request involving criminal law enforcement — ask a U.S. district court to appoint Commission attorneys to assist foreign courts and the people appearing before them, under section 1782 of title 28. (3) Criteria for deciding: The Commission considers factors including (A) whether the foreign agency has agreed to help the Commission in return, (B) whether helping would hurt the U.S. public interest, and (C) whether the foreign case involves harm to a significant number of people. (4) International agreements: If a foreign agency's law requires a formal agreement before it will share information, the Commission — with the State Department's approval throughout, and final sign-off from the Secretary of State — can negotiate and enter such an agreement. In it, the Commission can promise to (A) give assistance using the powers in this subsection, (B) share materials and information under the rules in (f) and section 57b–2(b), and (C) cooperate further while still protecting shared information from improper disclosure, as this law allows. (5) Additional authority: This power adds to, and doesn't replace, any other authority the Commission or other U.S. officials already have. (6) Limitation: This subsection doesn't let the Commission act against a bank, a covered savings and loan institution, a covered federal credit union, or a common carrier covered by the Act to Regulate Commerce, except as allowed by the general proviso described near the end of this section. (7) Assistance to certain countries: The Commission cannot give investigative assistance to a foreign law enforcement agency from a country that the Secretary of State has determined repeatedly supports international terrorism, unless and until that determination is later withdrawn. (k) Referral of evidence for criminal proceedings. (1) In general: If the Commission gets evidence that a person or company may have broken federal criminal law, it must send that evidence to the Attorney General, who may start criminal proceedings. This doesn't limit any other authority the Commission has to disclose information. (2) International information: The Commission must try to make sure that, under its agreements with foreign law enforcement agencies, material it receives from them can be used to investigate, prosecute, or prevent violations of U.S. criminal law. (l) Expenditures for cooperative arrangements. The Commission can spend appropriated funds on (1) operating costs for international law-enforcement cooperation groups the Commission takes part in, and (2) expenses for meetings and consultations it hosts with foreign government officials about the Commission's work, cooperation agreements, and technical assistance — including meals, travel, lodging, and other related costs for those events. Several unlabeled provisions follow the numbered list and apply more broadly to the whole section. The exception for banks, covered savings and loan institutions, covered federal credit unions, and covered common carriers in (a), (b), and (j) does not stop the Commission from gathering information about, or investigating, any company, group, or industry that isn't in those excluded businesses, or is only incidentally in them — even where doing so touches those excluded businesses. The Commission also had to create a plan to reduce the paperwork burden its quarterly financial reports place on small businesses. That plan had to be made after consulting small businesses and people who use the reports, had to reduce how many small businesses must file them, and had to simplify the report forms. The Commission had to send this plan to the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee by December 31, 1980, and the plan had to take effect by October 31, 1981. No Commission officer, employee, or Commissioner may publish or disclose information that would let someone identify a specific company's or person's "line-of-business" data. Only designated, sworn Commission staff may examine individual companies' line-of-business reports, and information from that program can be used only for statistical purposes. Information the Commission needs for its regular law-enforcement work must be gathered under the practices and procedures in place as of May 28, 1980, or as later changed by law. Except for subsections (c) and (d), nothing in this section applies to the business of insurance — but the Commission can still study and report on insurance. It may only exercise that authority if a majority of the Senate Commerce Committee or the House Energy and Commerce Committee agrees to the request, and the authority to conduct any such study ends when the Congress that requested it ends.