Last week, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson announced that “DEI is over at the FTC."  

Ferguson explained, “DEI is a scourge on our institutions. It denies to all Americans the Constitution’s promise of equality before the law. It divides people into castes on the basis of immutable characteristics, and treats them as caste members rather than as individuals. It stokes tensions by elevating race and other immutable characteristics above merit and excellence. It promotes invidious discrimination. And it violates federal and natural law.”

In the announcement, Ferguson said that he has taken a number of actions to implement President Trump's directive to end DEI-related initiatives, including closing the FTC's DEI office, moving DEI-related materials from the FTC's website, ordering a review of all Commission orders “to ensure that the Biden Administration’s DEI dictates did not make their way into formal Commission decisions,” and forbidding the Commission from “promoting DEI in any internal or external operations, rules, law-enforcement decisions, or hiring decisions." 

Ferguson's announcement also indicated that he intended to make a motion to ask for the Commission to delegate to him the authority to take other actions that he needs to take to comply with the President's DEI-related directives.  That motion was made and then later approved by the Commission, with Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak voting in favor, Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya voting against, and Commissioners Lina M. Khan and Rebecca K. Slaughter not participating.  

What does this all mean for advertising enforcement at the FTC?  It's too soon to tell, of course, but it very well may mean that the FTC no longer focuses on advertising practices that target specific communities.  For example, the FTC's current Strategic Plan says that one of its core objectives as part of its consumer protection mission is to “Support equity for historically underserved communities.”  The FTC did this work in a number of ways, including through guidance it issued (for example, the FTC's recent guidance on avoiding discrimination and bias in connection with the use of AI tools), its public workshops (for example, the FTC's dark patterns workshop, which explored, among other things, how dark patterns may disproportionally impact communities of color), and enforcement efforts (for example, the FTC's action against Coulter Motor Company, alleging that the company's practices hurt Latino consumers).