U.S. consumers cannot report fraud to FTC during shutdown, agency says

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will not take consumers' fraud complaints or help them block spam calls, and it will not grant early clearance to mergers during the government shutdown, the agency said on Wednesday.

The shuttering of the agency that enforces laws against anticompetitive and deceptive business behavior is one small part of the national gridlock that began on Wednesday and could result in the furlough of 750,000 federal workers and delay air travel.

The FTC's shutdown plan under President Donald Trump is similar to the one the agency put in place under Joe Biden's presidency.

The FTC's fraud reporting website and national registry that lets individuals opt out of telemarketing will not be available during the shutdown, the agency said.

Wall Street dealmakers can still file for clearance for mergers and acquisitions. But the agency will stop granting early clearance to deals that do not pose a threat to competition during the shutdown. Under Biden, the agency had stopped granting early clearance entirely.

The agency has 1,180 full-time employees, and said around 400 of those could be required to work without pay during the shutdown in certain circumstances, such as when a court deadline means the FTC could lose if it does not act.

The lack of resources could cause transaction reviews to take longer, said Aleksandr Livshits, an antitrust partner at law firm Fried Frank.

"It's more helpful to have a fully functioning government, there's more predictability," he said.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

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