[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 2, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52006-52008]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-20776]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File No. 141 0031]
National Association of Residential Property Managers, Inc.;
Analysis To Aid Public Comment
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
ACTION: Proposed consent agreement.
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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair methods of competition.
The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both the
allegations in the draft complaint and the terms of the consent order--
embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these allegations.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 22, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/narpmconsent online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``National Association
of Residential Property Managers, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File No. 141
0031'' on your comment and file your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/narpmconsent by following the
instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment
on paper, mail your comment to the following address: Federal Trade
Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite
CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary,
Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex
D), Washington, DC 20024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Armando Irizarry, Bureau of
Competition, (202-326-2964), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington,
DC 20580.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34,
notice is hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement
containing consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with
and accepted, subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been
placed on the public record for a period of thirty (30) days. The
following Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes the terms of the
consent agreement, and the allegations in the complaint. An electronic
copy of the full text of the consent agreement package can be obtained
from the FTC Home Page (for August 22, 2014), on the World Wide Web, at
http://www.ftc.gov/os/actions.shtm.
You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before September 22,
2014. Write ``National Association of Residential Property Managers,
Inc.--Consent Agreement; File No. 141 0031'' on your comment. Your
comment--including your name and your state--will be placed on the
public record of this proceeding, including, to the extent practicable,
on the public Commission Web site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of discretion, the Commission tries to
remove individuals' home contact
[[Page 52007]]
information from comments before placing them on the Commission Web
site.
Because your comment will be made public, you are solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number,
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any
sensitive health information, like medical records or other
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information
which . . . is privileged or confidential,'' as discussed in Section
6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas,
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\1\ Your comment will be kept
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the
public interest.
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\1\ In particular, the written request for confidential
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/narpmconsent by following the instructions on the web-based form.
If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also
may file a comment through that Web site.
If you file your comment on paper, write ``National Association of
Residential Property Managers, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File No. 141
0031'' on your comment and on the envelope, and mail your comment to
the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the
Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D),
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address:
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center,
400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC
20024. If possible, submit your paper comment to the Commission by
courier or overnight service.
Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this
Notice and the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws
that the Commission administers permit the collection of public
comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. The
Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments that
it receives on or before September 22, 2014. You can find more
information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in
the Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.
Analysis of Agreement Containing Consent Order To Aid Public Comment
The Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'') has accepted, subject
to final approval, an Agreement Containing Consent Order (``Consent
Agreement'') from the National Association of Residential Property
Managers, Inc. (hereinafter ``NARPM''). The Commission's complaint
(``Complaint'') alleges that NARPM, acting as a combination of its
members and in agreement with at least some of its members, restrained
competition among its members and others in violation of Section 5 of
the Federal Trade Commission Act, as amended, 15 U.S.C. 45. NARPM
restrained competition by adopting and maintaining provisions in its
Code of Ethics that restrain its members from (1) soliciting the
customers of competing property managers, and (2) making statements
about competing property managers that are neither false nor deceptive.
Under the terms of the proposed Consent Agreement, NARPM is
required to cease and desist from restricting its members from
soliciting customers or from making statements about competitors'
products, services, or business or commercial practices that are not
false or deceptive.
The Commission anticipates that the competitive issues described in
the Complaint will be resolved by accepting the proposed order, subject
to final approval, contained in the Consent Agreement. The proposed
Consent Agreement has been placed on the public record for 30 days for
receipt of comments from interested members of the public. Comments
received during this period will become part of the public record.
After 30 days, the Commission will review the Consent Agreement again
and the comments received, and will decide whether it should withdraw
from the Consent Agreement or make final the accompanying Decision and
Order (``the Proposed Order'').
The purpose of this Analysis to Aid Public Comment is to invite and
facilitate public comment. It is not intended to constitute an official
interpretation of the proposed Consent Agreement and the accompanying
Proposed Order or in any way to modify their terms.
The Consent Agreement is for settlement purposes only and does not
constitute an admission by NARPM that the law has been violated as
alleged in the Complaint or that the facts alleged in the Complaint,
other than jurisdictional facts, are true.
I. The Complaint
The Complaint makes the following allegations.
A. The Respondent
NARPM is a non-profit professional corporation of real estate
agents, brokers, managers and their employees, with over 4,000 members.
NARPM's members are in the business of managing single-family and
multi-family residential properties, condominiums, townhouses, and
short-term rentals. Some members also manage commercial and industrial
properties and homeowners associations.
B. The Anticompetitive Conduct
NARPM maintains a Code of Ethics applicable to the commercial
activities of its members. NARPM's members agree to abide by the Code
of Ethics as a condition of membership. NARPM maintains the following
provisions in its Code of Ethics:
``The Property Manager shall not knowingly solicit
competitor's clients.''
``NARPM Professional Members shall refrain from
criticizing other property managers or their business practices.''
NARPM also established a process for receiving complaints about and
resolving alleged violations of the Code of Ethics. NARPM may sanction
members found to violate the Code of Ethics. Sanctions may include a
letter of reprimand, probation or suspension for a specified term, or
expulsion from NARPM.
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The Complaint alleges that NARPM has violated Section 5 of the
Federal Trade Commission Act by adopting and maintaining provisions in
its Code of Ethics that restrain its members from (1) soliciting the
customers of competing property managers, and (2) making statements
that are not false or deceptive about competing property managers. The
Complaint alleges that the purpose, effects, tendency, or capacity of
the combination, agreement, acts and practices of NARPM has been and is
to restrain competition unreasonably and to injure consumers by
discouraging and restricting competition among property managers, and
by depriving consumers and others of the benefits of free and open
competition among property managers.
II. The Proposed Order
The Proposed Order has the following substantive provisions.
Paragraph II requires NARPM to cease and desist from restraining its
members from soliciting property management work, or from making
statements about competitors' products, services, or business or
commercial practices that are not false or deceptive. The Proposed
Order does not prohibit NARPM from adopting and enforcing reasonable
restraints with respect to representations that NARPM reasonably
believes would be false or deceptive within the meaning of Section 5 of
the Federal Trade Commission Act.
Paragraph III of the Proposed Order requires NARPM to remove from
its Web site and organization documents any statement that does not
comply with the Proposed Order, and to publish on the Web site any
revision to the organization documents. NARPM must publish an
announcement that it has changed its Code of Ethics, and a statement
describing the Consent Agreement (``the Settlement Statement''). NARPM
must publish the aforementioned documents in NARPM's news magazine.
NARPM must distribute the Settlement Statement to NARPM's board of
directors, officers, employees, and members. NARPM must publish in all
ethics courses designed or offered by NARPM that discuss the provisions
at issue a statement that restrictions on solicitation or advertising
no longer apply. Paragraph III also requires NARPM to provide all new
members and all members who receive a membership renewal notice with a
copy of the Settlement Statement.
Paragraph IV of the Proposed Order requires NARPM to design,
maintain, and operate an antitrust compliance program. NARPM will have
to appoint an Antitrust Compliance Officer for the duration of the
Proposed Order. For a period of five years, NARPM will have to provide
in-person annual training to its board of directors, officers, and
employees, and conduct a presentation at its annual convention,
regional conferences, and each code of ethics training session, that
summarizes NARPM's obligations under the Proposed Order and provides
context-appropriate guidance on compliance with the antitrust laws.
NARPM must also implement policies and procedures to enable persons to
ask questions about, and report violations of, the Proposed Order and
the antitrust laws confidentially and without fear of retaliation, and
to discipline its board of directors, officers, employees, members, and
agents for failure to comply with the Proposed Order.
Paragraphs V-VII of the Proposed Order impose certain standard
reporting and compliance requirements on NARPM.
The Proposed Order will expire in 20 years.
By direction of the Commission.
Janice Podoll Frankle,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-20776 Filed 8-29-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P