Public Citizen Legal Team Veteran to Head FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Jon Leibowitz has reportedly named David Vladeck as director of the commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Vladeck, who leaves the Georgetown University Law Center faculty, is apparently a 30-year veteran of the Public Citizen Litigation Group and, as such, is expected to pursue a consumer-protection agenda. Representatives of other public advocacy organizations are applauding the selection and have expressed their hope that “he will pay special attention to advertising and marketing to children.”

Vladeck co-authored a law review article with former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler to criticize the preamble to the FDA’s 2006 prescription drug labeling rule, which set forth a pro-preemption policy. In the article, titled “A Critical Examination of the FDA’s Efforts to Preempt Failure-to-Warn Claims,” the authors conclude, “it would be a mistake to preempt state-law failure-to-warn cases,
which impose a complementary discipline on the marketplace.” See Advertising Age and FTC Press Release, April 14, 2009.