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Bodies with power

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Type
Government body
Place
United States — United States (federal)
Last checked
2026-09-22
Next check due
2027-03-21

Ways to reach them

  • ReportFraud.ftc.gov — the FTC's public complaint intake · Complaint route
    Verified · 2026-09-22

    Anyone may report a business practice, including deceptive AI claims or harmful AI products. Reports feed the Consumer Sentinel database used by FTC and 2,800+ law-enforcement partners.

    VERIFIED on https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/contact.

  • Consumer helpline · Complaint route
    1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357)
    Verified · 2026-09-22

    General consumer inquiries and complaints.

    VERIFIED on the FTC contact page.

  • FTC public comment on rulemakings, workshops and 6(b) studies · Regulatory docket
    Unverified

    The FTC takes public comment on proposed rules and on workshop records; comments are published on the docket.

    UNVERIFIED as fetched. The FTC also runs its own comment pages linked from each rulemaking announcement.

  • Public affairs / press · Email address
    Verified · 2026-09-22

    Journalists only.

    VERIFIED on the FTC contact page. Also webmaster@ftc.gov (site issues) and electronicfilings@ftc.gov (administrative litigation filings).

  • Mail for confidential material · Email address
    Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20580
    Verified · 2026-09-22

    The FTC explicitly warns that email is not secure and says to mark confidential information 'Confidential' and send it by post.

    VERIFIED — quoted from the FTC contact page.

  • Homepage · Homepage
    Unchecked
  • Submission page · Complaint route
    Open contact route · 2026-09-22

    Who may use it: public

    Evidence that this route accepts contact · 2026-09-22

    Reports of fraud, scams and bad business practices — which covers AI-related deception: false capability claims, deceptive AI marketing, undisclosed AI use, AI-enabled impersonation. The FTC has brought AI-deception cases under its Section 5 unfair-or-deceptive-practices authority.

    Online at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Note: at the time of this research the site was returning a government shutdown notice and was unable to offer the reporting service, directing users to consumer.ftc.gov instead — verify availability before relying on it. An alternative framing for AI-safety-adjacent harms is a complaint to a State Attorney General.

  • Homepage · Homepage
    Verification expired

    Evidence that this route accepts contact

What it does

Enforces Section 5 of the FTC Act against unfair or deceptive acts and practices, plus COPPA, ROSCA and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Applied to AI this means: deceptive claims about AI capability ('AI washing'), harms from AI products to children, deceptive chatbot design, and misuse of data for training. Can open investigations, issue compulsory process (civil investigative demands and 6(b) orders), sue in federal court, obtain injunctions and civil penalties, and impose consent decrees including algorithmic disgorgement (deletion of models built on unlawfully obtained data). It is the closest thing the US has to a general-purpose AI consumer regulator.

Its powers

compel

Honest assessment

ReportFraud is a real database, not a black hole — but a single consumer complaint rarely triggers action; patterns do. The high-leverage routes are (a) a detailed, documented complaint sent by post to the Bureau of Consumer Protection when the matter is confidential or involves a whistleblower, and (b) public comments on FTC workshops and rulemakings, which are docketed, published, and cited in Commission statements. The FTC's AI work is squarely CONSUMER-HARM oriented — deception, children's safety, data misuse — and it has no theory of action for catastrophic or frontier risk. Do not route an existential-risk argument here.

How to file

Online at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Note: at the time of this research the site was returning a government shutdown notice and was unable to offer the reporting service, directing users to consumer.ftc.gov instead — verify availability before relying on it. An alternative framing for AI-safety-adjacent harms is a complaint to a State Attorney General.

Format

Structured web form: what happened, who, when, amounts, documents.

Timing

Rolling (subject to the availability issue above).

What happens after

Data enters Consumer Sentinel and is used to spot patterns and build cases. No individual case is opened and you get no case outcome.

What it accepts

Reports of fraud, scams and bad business practices — which covers AI-related deception: false capability claims, deceptive AI marketing, undisclosed AI use, AI-enabled impersonation. The FTC has brought AI-deception cases under its Section 5 unfair-or-deceptive-practices authority.

What it does not accept

The FTC does not resolve individual complaints and will not obtain redress for you in the ordinary case. Reports feed the Consumer Sentinel Network, a law enforcement intelligence database shared with federal, state and international enforcers.

Operated by

Federal Trade Commission

Notes

Enforcement priorities shift sharply with commission composition; check current leadership before assuming a given theory of harm is live.

Sources

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