Presentation given by Henry N. Butler, executive director, Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth, and Geoffrey J. Lysaught, senior director, Searle Civil Justice Institute, for "A Panel Discussion on
 State Consumer Protection Acts:
 An Empirical Investigation of Private Litigation," hosted by the American Bar Association.

4. Research Question Are there important qualitative differences between consumer protection claims brought in courts and enforcement actions brought under FTC Section 5 standards? Or, are CPAs really Little FTC Acts?

6. Few of the CPA cases would constitute illegal conduct (either unfair or deceptive) under FTC consumer protection standards Only 22% of the randomly generated CPA cases and no more than 62% of the successful CPA cases were found to constitute illegal conduct Results: Illegality Cases Where the Shadow FTC Believed the Scenario Contained Illegal Conduct

7. Even fewer of the CPA cases would likely be enforced by the FTC Only 12% of the randomly generated CPA cases and 23% of successful CPA cases would result in FTC enforcement Results: Enforcement Cases Where the Shadow FTC Believed the FTC Would Initiate an Enforcement Action

8. Not all of the cases constituting illegal conduct would result in FTC enforcement These results provide some support for the theory that CPAs allow private litigants to bring cases that approximate FTC enforcement actions but might not warrant allocation of FTC resources Results: Illegality and Enforcement Cases Where the Shadow FTC Believed the Scenario Contained Illegal Conduct and the FTC Would Initiate an Enforcement Action

9. The Shadow Commission reached accurate conclusions in the 10 FTC control cases, correctly identifying illegal conduct and suggesting enforcement 100% of the time This gives credence to the Shadow Commission’s findings in non-FTC case scenarios Results: FTC Control Cases

11. Henry N. Butler Executive Director Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth 312.503.0290 [email_address] Geoffrey J. Lysaught Senior Director Searle Civil Justice Institute 312.503.5143 [email_address] Website: www.northwesternsearlecenter.org