FTC’s New Strategic Plan Falls Short for Consumers

On April 3, the FTC published a new Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026–2030 that falls far short of what is needed to effectively protect consumers. The FTC publishes a new strategic plan every five years, laying out the Commission’s high-level goals and operational agenda for the years ahead. But the latest plan shows a serious drop in ambition compared to the Plan for 2021–2025, and represents yet another example of the FTC shying away from meaningful regulatory enforcement under Chair Ferguson’s tenure. 

The FTC published a draft of its Strategic Plan back in September of 2025. At that time, EPIC co-authored a comment pointing out the inadequacies of the draft and suggesting specific improvements. Our comment was joined by a coalition of civil society organizations who shared our concerns. Unfortunately, the Commission—under Chair Ferguson’s leadership—did not listen. The Commission adopted the draft plan more or less verbatim. 

The concerns we raised in September remain unaddressed. The new Strategic Plan scraps critical performance metrics that track the market-wide effects of the Commission’s regulatory and enforcement actions, instead focusing on piecemeal case-by-case enforcement. For an agency tasked with protecting the world’s largest economy and a population of over 340 million, this is the wrong strategy as it is bound to leave many violations unaddressed. In addition to this, the new Plan removes any reference to protecting vulnerable populations, leaving these groups further exposed to corporate abuse. 

As we noted back in October, the FTC’s Strategic Plan should serve as an instrument for accountability, transparency, and ambition in advancing the Commission’s mission of protecting the American people from corporate misconduct. The FTC’s policy documents and enforcement actions have long been an indicator in the industry as to the future of consumer protection regulation, and this new Plan is woefully deficient, formalizing much of the weakness we have seen in the first year of Chair Ferguson’s tenure.