Last week, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it signed a cooperation agreement with Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru to combat fraud both inside and outside the United States. The Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding promotes cooperation across these countries, including information-sharing and and cooperation on cross-border enforcement.
In announcing the agreement, Maria Coppola, Director of the FTC's Office of International Affairs, said, “This multilateral MOU with our partners from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru sends a message of our shared commitment to protect consumers from cross-border fraud, deception, and other illegal practices.”
The agreement encourages each of the countries to:
- Share complaints submitted by consumers;
- Provide investigative assistance;
- Coordinate enforcement actions;
- Provide other case assistance;
- Participate in econsumer.gov; and
- Cooperate on non-investigatory matters.
The agreement also provides mechanism for other countries to join the agreement in the future.