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About NERA
Since 1961, NERA has provided unparalleled guidance on the most important market, legal, and regulatory questions of the day. Our work has shaped industries and policy around the world. Our field-leading experts and deep experience allows us to provide rigorous analysis, reliable expert testimony, and data-powered policy recommendations for the world’s leading law firms and corporations as well as regulators and governments. Our experience, integrity, and economic ingenuity mean you can depend on us in the face of your biggest economic and financial challenges.
On 8 April 2026, the FTC’s Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) released a blog post about how the BCP engages with economics and economists on consumer protection matters and best practices for businesses looking to engage further. The BCP’s increasing emphasis on engaging with economics has been evident for a while—see our ABA note about the increased emphasis on economics from October. Director Christopher Mufarrige’s blog provides direct information about what BCP is thinking. The blog post “How to Best Engage with BCP and BE on Economic Analysis in BCP Investigations” is worth reading in full, but our key takeaways include:
- BCP attorneys and economists are working together to develop their theories of harm and estimates of that harm;
- The Bureau of Economics (BE) and BCP have provided a public roadmap that aligns expectations about consumer protection economic submissions with the well-known high standards for antitrust economic analysis;
- BCP staff will provide at least a high-level summary of how they are evaluating economic harm, as well as an explanation of any penalties;
- Outside parties are expected to “present empirical analysis as early in the investigation as practicable;” and
- BE staff will be most likely to engage on matters in which economic analysis is presented with the detail and time necessary to consider that analysis.
As the only economic consulting firm that has two private sector economists to have served on BE in recent years, NERA is uniquely positioned to help clients engage with the FTC’s economists because of our direct experience with the FTC’s economics staff and how they think.