15 U.S.C. § 56 — Commencement, defense, intervention and supervision of litigation and appeal by Commission or Attorney General

(a) Procedure for exercise of authority to litigate or appeal: This subsection decides who, the Federal Trade Commission or the Attorney General, gets to handle a lawsuit under this subchapter. (1) The general rule: Before starting, defending, or joining a civil action under this subchapter (including one to collect a civil penalty), the Commission must give the Attorney General written notice and try to consult with the Attorney General about it. If the Attorney General doesn't start, defend, or join the case within 45 days of getting that notice, the Commission can handle the case itself, including supervising it and any appeal, through its own designated attorneys. (2) For certain kinds of cases, though, the Commission has exclusive control from the start (unless it chooses to let the Attorney General handle it instead). These are: actions under section 53 for injunctive relief; actions under section 57b for consumer redress; actions to get judicial review of a Commission rule or a cease-and-desist order under section 45; actions to enforce a subpoena or compel compliance, under the second and fourth paragraphs of section 49; and actions under section 57b-2a. The Commission must tell the Attorney General when it uses this exclusive authority. Even so, the Attorney General can still intervene on the United States' behalf in the case, if some other law allows it. (3) Special rules apply for taking a case to the Supreme Court. If the Commission handled a case itself under (1) or (2) and wants to represent itself before the Supreme Court too, it can make a written request to the Attorney General within 10 days after judgment. The Commission may then represent itself if the Attorney General agrees, or if the Attorney General, within 60 days of the judgment, either refuses to appeal or seek Supreme Court review (and explains why in writing within that 60 days), or simply doesn't respond to the Commission's request. If the Attorney General does end up representing the Commission before the Supreme Court in a case the Commission previously ran itself, the Attorney General can't settle, compromise, dismiss, or concede the case without the Commission's agreement. For this paragraph, "Attorney General" also includes the Solicitor General. (4) If a court deadline (for filing pleadings, a notice of appeal, or similar) would otherwise cut off the Commission's or Attorney General's window to act, before the 45-day period in (1) or the 60-day period in (3) runs out, the Attorney General gets only half of whatever time the court's procedural rule allows, for deciding whether to step in under (1), or whether to refuse an appeal/certiorari petition under (3). (5) All these rules in subsection (a) apply regardless of chapter 31 of title 28 (the general rule about DOJ representing federal agencies) or any other law. (b) Certification by Commission to Attorney General for criminal proceedings: If the Commission has reason to believe a person, partnership, or corporation may be criminally liable under this subchapter, the Commission must send the facts to the Attorney General. The Attorney General then has a duty to bring the appropriate criminal charges. (c) Foreign litigation: This subsection lets the Commission help with lawsuits in foreign courts. (1) With the Attorney General's agreement, the Commission can assign its own attorneys to help the Attorney General with litigation in foreign courts on matters the Commission cares about. (2) The Commission can spend its appropriated funds, if it agrees with the Attorney General, to reimburse the Attorney General for hiring foreign lawyers and for other expenses tied to that foreign litigation. (3) This subsection doesn't let anyone pay claims or judgments from any funding source except the permanent, indefinite appropriation described in section 1304 of title 31. (4) The authority given in this subsection is on top of, not instead of, any other authority the Commission or the Attorney General already has.