Rules of Practice

What it does

• •Eliminates the FTC's post-employment ethics clearance rule (formerly in 16 CFR 4.1(b)-(c)), which required former employees to obtain agency approval before engaging in certain post-government activities.
• •Adds new Section 5.30 to remind current and former FTC employees of federal post-employment restrictions under 18 U.S.C. 207 and related laws, including prohibitions on representing others in matters the employee personally worked on and cooling-off periods for senior employees.
• •Reorganizes and streamlines disciplinary procedures (Sections 5.50-5.54) to align with current agency practice, clarifying that violations of ethics requirements and post-employment restrictions can result in reprimand, suspension, or prohibition from FTC appearances for up to 5 years.
• •Updates cross-references and clarification language throughout Parts 4 and 5 regarding executive branch-wide ethics and financial disclosure requirements applicable to all FTC employees.

Why it matters

• •The clearance rule elimination removes a requirement the Commission found duplicative of federal law, inconsistent with other agencies' practices, and potentially counterproductive to recruiting specialized talent such as economists and technologists.
• •The new Section 5.30 consolidates post-employment restrictions in FTC regulations while relying on existing federal law and bar professional conduct rules for enforcement, reducing the agency's independent regulatory burden.
• •The revised disciplinary framework clarifies available sanctions for ethics violations while streamlining procedures to rely on Inspector General investigations rather than independent FTC investigations.

Who is affected

• •Current and former FTC employees, including Commissioners, political appointees, senior executives, attorneys, and special government employees.
• •Prospective FTC employees and contractors in specialized fields such as economics and technology who may face fewer post-employment restrictions at other federal agencies.
• •FTC applicants seeking ethics clearance, who will no longer need to obtain prior agency approval before engaging in permitted post-government work.

What happens next

This final rule is effective as of September 24, 2026, and eliminates the ethics clearance requirement while establishing a new regulatory framework that relies on compliance with existing federal post-employment restrictions and disciplinary procedures.