[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 250 (Wednesday, December 31, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78870-78872]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-30649]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
[File No. 131 0168]
Professional Skaters Association, 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 January 22, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/FTC/proskatersconsent online or on paper, by
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``the Professional
Skaters Association, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File 131-0168'' on your
comment and file your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/FTC/proskatersconsent by following the
instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment
on paper, write ``the Professional Skaters Association, Inc.--Consent
Agreement; File 131-0168'' on your comment and on the envelope, and
mail it 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: Karen A. Mills, Bureau of Competition,
(202-326-2052), 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 December 23, 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 January 22,
2015. Write ``the Professional Skaters Association, Inc.--Consent
Agreement; File 131-0168'' 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 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/proskatersconsent 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 ``the Professional Skaters
Association, Inc.--Consent Agreement; File 131-0168'' 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 January 22, 2015. 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 Professional Skaters Association, Inc.
(hereinafter ``PSA''). The Commission's complaint (``Complaint'')
alleges that PSA, 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, by adopting and
maintaining a provision in its Code of Ethics that restrains coaches
from soliciting teaching work.
Under the terms of the proposed Consent Agreement, PSA is required
to cease and desist from restricting
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competition among its members, or working with other ice skating
organizations to restrict competition, including by restricting
solicitation, advertising, or price--related competition.
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 PSA 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
PSA is a non-profit trade association whose members include
approximately 6400 coaches of ice skating who teach, train, and coach
skaters at all levels--from beginners to elite skaters. Many PSAs
members teach and coach skaters for a fee. Some PSA members are
employed at schools, universities, ice skating clubs, and ice skating
rinks. PSA membership provides financial benefits to its members.
PSA membership and continuing education is required by the U.S.
Figure Skating Association (``USFSA'') for coaches of skaters
participating in: (i) USFSA qualifying competitions, and (ii)
international ice skating competitions as part of Team USA. Because of
this requirement, PSA membership is required in order to coach
competitive skaters.
Coaches require access to ice skating rink facilities. Some ice
skating rink facilities require that coaches have PSA membership.
PSA maintains a Code of Ethics applicable to the commercial
activities of its members. The PSA Code of Ethics states that, ``No
member shall in any case solicit pupils of another member, directly or
indirectly, or through third parties.'' The PSA Code of Ethics also
requires that, ``Prior to acting as a coach, the member shall determine
the nature and extent of any earlier teaching relationship with that
skater and other members.''
B. The Anticompetitive Conduct
The Complaint alleges that PSA violated Section 5 of the Federal
Trade Commission Act by restraining competition among coaches of ice
skating through adoption and enforcement of the no-solicitation
provision of PSA's Code of Ethics. This is in effect an agreement among
competitors not to compete. PSA interprets the no-solicitation rule
broadly, prohibiting direct, indirect, third-party, and social media
solicitation of teaching work. PSA has instructed its members and
others that the Code of Ethics no solicitation rule prohibits coaches
from many types of direct or indirect communication with skaters and
parents, including:
Suggesting a skater change coaches
Suggesting a skater would have better results by changing
coaches
Suggesting a skater who attends a seminar stay for a few days
of additional training
Sending recruiting material to a skater or parent
Claiming one coach is a more qualified coach than another
Claiming one ice skating program is better than another
Offering free lessons, ice time, or equipment
PSA requires its members to agree to abide by the Code of Ethics,
educates members about the Code of Ethics, exhorts its members to
follow the Code of Ethics and polices members' behavior. It also
enforces the Code of Ethics through a grievance process administered by
PSA's Committee on Professional Standards (the ``COPS''). PSA has
enforced the Code of Ethics no-solicitation provision against at least
nine member coaches since 2006, with penalties including private
admonition, public admonition, suspended membership, and probation.
PSA has sanctioned member coaches for soliciting students of other
members even when the students and their parents wanted to switch
coaches for a variety of compelling reasons. PSA has enlisted parents
and skaters in the effort to enforce the Code of Ethics no-solicitation
provision. The Complaint alleges that the purpose, effect, tendency, or
capacity of the combination, agreement, acts and practices of PSA has
been and is to restrain competition unreasonably and to injure
consumers by discouraging and restricting competition among ice skating
teachers and coaches.
II. The Proposed Order
The Proposed Order has the following substantive provisions:
Paragraph I contains definitions for terms used in the Order.
Paragraph II requires PSA to cease and desist from restraining or
declaring unethical, interfering with, or advising against the
solicitation of teaching work. It also requires that PSA not prohibit
or advise against coaches' solicitation of students. Paragraph II
requires PSA to cease and desist from encouraging or assisting any
other organization to adopt, maintain, or enforce any Code of Ethics or
other restriction on solicitation. Finally, Paragraph II requires PSA
to cease and desist from restraining price competition, including
offering free lessons.
The Proposed Order does not prohibit PSA from adopting and
enforcing reasonable principles, rules, guidelines, or policies
governing the conduct of its Members with respect to (i)
representations that Respondent reasonably believes would be false or
deceptive within the meaning of Section 5 of the Federal Trade
Commission Act; (ii) prevention of sexual and physical abuse of
children; or (iii) in-person solicitation of a skater actively engaged
in (a) a skating lesson, or (b) skating or preparing to skate at an
arena in a test, competition, or exhibition. The Order defines skating
or preparing to skate as including meetings with coaches, locker room
time, practice skating, and warm-up skating.
Paragraph III of the Proposed Order requires PSA to remove from its
organization documents and Web site any statement inconsistent with the
Proposed Order PSA must publicize to its members, new members, leaders,
employees, and the public the changes PSA must make to the Code of
Ethics, and a statement describing the Consent Agreement. Finally, PSA
must notify the Ice Skating Institute (``ISI'') and United States
Figure Skating Association that PSA (i) agreed to change its Code of
Ethics and (ii) will not enforce or investigate on behalf of Skating
Organizations violation of any Code of Ethics or practice that does not
comply with the FTC's Order against PSA.
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Further, the Order requires PSA to notify USFSA and ISI that the Order
will prevent PSA from doing on behalf of USFSA or ISI anything that, if
done by PSA, would be inconsistent with the Order against PSA. This is
necessary because PSA provides various education services on ethics to
both USFA and ISI coaches.
Paragraph IV of the Proposed Order requires PSA to design,
maintain, and operate an antitrust compliance program. PSA must have an
Antitrust Compliance Officer for the duration of the Proposed Order.
For a period of five years, PSA must provide guidance to its staff,
employees, members, and leaders concerning the antitrust laws and PSA
obligations under the Proposed Order. PSA also must 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 leaders,
employees and agents for failure to comply with the Proposed Order.
Paragraphs V-VII of the Proposed Order require certain standard
compliance reporting, cooperation, and access.
The Proposed Order will expire in the 20 years.
By direction of the Commission.
Janice Podoll Frankle,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-30649 Filed 12-30-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P