The FTC’s Injunctive Authority Against False Advertising of Food and Drugs

Two judicial decisions in the early 1950s construing the FTC’s section 13 (a) power produced a conflict that has not been resolved either by later courts or by the amendments to section 13 enacted in 1973. The dispute basically concerns the depth of the courts’ inquiry into whether an advertisement violates- section 12 and the applicability of traditional equitable concepts in the context of the statutory injunction procedure. This Note contends that the legislative history of pertinent provisions of the Act suggests an appropriate resolution of the conflict through a two-step approach that would relax the scrutiny ordinarily accorded petitions for preliminary relief but would not dispense with the same general considerations that have traditionally been used in equitable matters.