Supreme Court Slashes FTC’s Power to Seek Monetary Awards (2)

The U.S. Supreme Court slashed the Federal Trade Commission’s power to seek monetary awards in court, throwing out a legal tool the consumer-protection agency has used to collect billions of dollars over the past decade.

The justices on Thursday unanimously said the FTC can’t seek consumer redress when it invokes a provision that lets the agency go straight to federal court to try to stop an alleged fraud. The ruling is a triumph for business trade groups, which had urged the court to curb the agency’s powers.

The FTC in 2012 dramatically ramped up its use of the decades-old ...