The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection (“BCP”) has announced a new Rule Guidance Program designed to give businesses, trade associations, consumer groups, and other stakeholders a formal channel to identify genuine uncertainties and significant conflicts in FTC rules. The initiative is intended to promote clearer public guidance, greater transparency, and more practical understanding of consumer-protection obligations.
Purpose of the Program
The program invites stakeholders to identify three principal categories of issues: genuine ambiguities in an FTC rule, substantive conflicts between a rule and an existing statute or another rule, and other significant concerns embedded in Commission rules. If the BCP concludes that an issue warrants attention, it may issue guidance explaining the Bureau’s interpretation or response.
The stated objective is not to replace legal compliance functions, but to help the public understand and comply with FTC requirements. By publishing guidance when appropriate, BCP aims to make the agency’s responses available to all regulated parties and the public—not just the entity that submitted the question.
How Submissions Work
Stakeholders submit questions through an online form described on the BCP Rule Guidance Program webpage. The submission process routes questions to the Bureau and relevant staff for review and evaluation.
The FTC has not promised that every request will receive an individual response. Instead, staff will assess whether a question raises an appropriate issue for agency guidance, and BCP will decide whether a public response is warranted.
What the Program Excludes
The program has defined limits. BCP says it will not use the process merely to restate regulatory text, answer questions already readily addressed by the FTC’s existing plain-language materials or reduce a business’s independent compliance responsibilities.
Most importantly, the Bureau states that it will not interpret performance-based standards such as “clear and conspicuous.” Those standards have an established meaning developed through case law and must be evaluated by companies and their counsel in the relevant factual context.
Practical Value for Businesses
The program could be especially useful where a company faces a recurring compliance issue that is material, broadly relevant, and not clearly addressed by the regulation’s text, prior FTC guidance, or case law. Businesses should frame submissions narrowly, identify the precise rule language at issue, explain the ambiguity or conflict, describe real-world compliance consequences, and propose a principled interpretation or question for the Bureau to address.
A productive submission should avoid asking the FTC to bless a specific campaign, product, disclosure, or business practice. The Bureau has made clear that regulated parties remain responsible for applying legal standards to their own facts and for obtaining advice from counsel where necessary.
Likely Impact
The new process may create a growing body of publicly accessible BCP interpretations that companies can use when designing compliance programs, revising policies, training employees, and assessing regulatory risk. Because responses may be published, a well-framed question could provide clarity across an industry rather than only for one submitter.
At the same time, published guidance is not the same as a binding regulation, adjudicative order, or judicial decision. Companies should treat any eventual response as an important indicator of BCP’s current enforcement and interpretive position, while continuing to evaluate the underlying statute, rule text, controlling precedent, and facts of the particular business practice.
Preparing a Submission
Before submitting a question, a stakeholder should:
- Identify the exact FTC rule provision and related statutory or regulatory text.
- Confirm that the issue is not already answered in existing FTC guidance.
- Explain why the question involves a genuine ambiguity, substantive conflict, or significant rule-related issue.
- Describe the issue’s practical effects without seeking a fact-specific compliance safe harbor.
- Provide a clear proposed interpretation, alternatives, or policy considerations.
- Assume the question and any response may become public and avoid unnecessary disclosure of confidential business information.
The FTC indicates that it will refine the program over time based on experience and lessons learned. Stakeholders with well-defined, broadly applicable questions therefore have an opportunity to help shape a more transparent and usable body of consumer-protection guidance.
