Just the Beginning or Nearly the End: Regulatory Impact of the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC

Mark Merritt participated in a panel at the American Bar Association's 42nd Annual Conference. The session covered the following:

In North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission, the Supreme Court upheld the Federal Trade Commission’s ruling that the Dental Board violated antitrust laws when it sent dozens of “cease and desist” letters to teeth whiteners, claiming that they were engaged in the “unauthorized practice of dentistry.” Not restricted to just the dental profession, this ruling will have far broader ramifications for many professions, specifically, the regulation of the practice of law. This program discussed the impact of the decision, considered the implications of the entry into the legal market of legal service providers who are not traditional lawyers, how to best regulate such providers, when and what enforcement actions are warranted and supportable, and offered different perspectives on the decision and its consequences.