Consumer Protection — Still Open for Business

The ABA White Collar Crime Institute continues in sunny San Diego, and one panel stood out from the rest: consumer protection enforcement. Why? It was the only session to feature sitting government officials — Sean Keveney, Chief Counsel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Jonathan Cohen, Chief Litigation Counsel for the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection. They joined former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, including our own Burden Walker, for a candid conversation about the future of consumer protection enforcement.

The headline takeaway: don’t expect consumer protection to close up shop under this administration.

If anything, consumer protection is finding new life in the current moment. Many of the issues these agencies address — trade, supply chain security, gender-affirming care for minors, food safety — line up squarely with the current administration's priorities. That overlap isn’t incidental. It’s the engine driving enforcement forward.

For the FDA, Keveney flagged the areas likely to see continued focus: 7-OH products, gender-affirming care for minors, direct-to-consumer advertising, illegal vapes coming in from China, and food safety. For the FTC, Cohen highlighted “Made in U.S.A.” requirements, the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act. He also flagged AI as a growing area of interest — the FTC has already issued several orders to tech companies seeking information about how they use it.

Over at DOJ, there is no denying that the structure has changed, and that the future is uncertain. The Consumer Protection Branch is gone, replaced by two new units — the Enforcement and Affirmative Litigation Branch inside the Civil Division and the Health and Safety Unit within the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. Both retain authority to investigate and prosecute civil and criminal consumer protection violations, including under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Consumer Product Safety Act. How will they divide cases going forward? The panelists were candid: nobody knows yet.

The FTC and FDA haven't gone through the same kind of upheaval. Cohen noted that the FTC has kept moving despite operating with just two commissioners and a third nominee pending. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is down to a single commissioner but still filed or settled two significant Section 15 failure-to-report cases in recent months. That’s not nothing.

The bottom line: reorganization isn’t the same as retreat. The enforcement machinery is still running. The org charts just look different.

Still live from San Diego — stay tuned for more from the 2026 White Collar Crime Institute here on Enforcement Edge.

© Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 2026 All Rights Reserved. This Blog post is intended to be a general summary of the law and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.