FTC Taps Litigators for Competition and Consumer Protection Roles

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has appointed deputies to its competition and consumer protection divisions.

Taylor C. Hoogendoorn has been named deputy director of the commission’s Bureau of Competition, while Katherine White will serve as deputy director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, the regulator said in a Wednesday (March 26) news release.

“Hoogendoorn is a talented litigator with expertise in a wide range of litigation, including antitrust, tort, contractual, energy, and intellectual property matters,” the release said.

He joins the FTC after working for a Houston law firm, and has clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito along with a pair of appeals court clerkships.

“White is an experienced privacy and consumer protection attorney, with a career in both government service and private practice,” the release added. “White has deep experience in all aspects of consumer protection law and has led complex investigations relating to privacy, data security, and credit reporting.”

Also coming to the FTC from the private sector, White is a veteran of the agency, serving as attorney advisor to former Commissioner Noah Phillips during the first Trump administration, in addition to other roles.

The FTC announced earlier this month that its law enforcement actions yielded $337.3 million in refunds to consumers last year.

This total included $280.7 million in refunds directly from the commission, with the remainder being returned to consumers by the defendants or other federal agencies carrying out refund programs. In all, 3.1 million people cashed payments from the FTC in 2024.

“Getting money back for people across the country is a top priority for the FTC,” Chris Mufarrige, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a news release. “We will relentlessly pursue refunds for Americans who lost money to unlawful practices.”

More recently, the FTC said two men who had been accused of conducting an eCommerce business opportunity scam had agreed to settle the charges.

Trevor Duffy Young and Wessam Baiz, along with companies associated with Baiz, will turn over profits they made from their business and will be banned from any involvement with any business opportunity, and will be barred from deceiving consumers about any good or service they sell or market, the FTC said earlier this week.

“Young, Baiz and Baiz’s companies were part of a deceptive operation that took advantage of consumers looking to invest their hard-earned money, only to learn that promises of successful eCommerce stores were a total sham,” Mufarrige said at the time.