Treat some corporate political conduct as an unfair trade practice
What the document says“This type of behavior can rise to the level of an unfair trade practice when the business is (1) publicly traded; (2) highly regulated;”
The full list of conditions continues: enjoys legal privileges, enjoys market power, and appears to pursue its own political or social agenda unrelated to any conceivable branding concern. The chapter says such decisions would normally receive deference as business judgment but that this is harder in what it calls a highly partisan, ideologically divided America, and that businesses enjoying government privileges or market power should not replace democratic decision-making with their own judgment on controversial matters.
What the document actually says“This type of behavior can rise to the level of an unfair trade practice when the business is (1) publicly traded; (2) highly regulated;”
This can count as an unfair trade practice. It depends on what kind of firm it is.
Some firms take public stands on politics. The book says that can be unfair trading. It lists the conditions, such as having market power.
Protecting American Investors From Foreign-Owned and Politically-Motivated Proxy Advisors
2025-12-11 · 90 FR 58503
Section 3 of the order directs the FTC Chairman, in consultation with the Attorney General, to investigate whether proxy advisors engage in unfair methods of competition or unfair or deceptive acts, and the order's stated reason for singling them out is that they hold more than 90 percent of their market and use it to advance what it calls politically-motivated agendas such as diversity, equity, and inclusion and environmental, social, and governance policies. That is the chapter's route, market power plus a political agenda examined under the FTC's unfair practice authority. The fit breaks down on the firms and the grounds. The chapter's conditions describe publicly traded, highly regulated companies with legal privileges, while the order targets two privately held, foreign-owned advisory firms and asks the SEC to consider whether they should have to register at all. The unfair practice grounds the order lists are collusion, undisclosed conflicts of interest, misleading information, and undermining informed choice, not the political character of the conduct by itself. It also directs an investigation rather than issuing the regulation the chapter contemplates, and it reaches firms that advise shareholders rather than companies taking political positions of their own.
The order tells the trade commission to look at whether proxy advisers use unfair methods. That is the chapter's route: market power plus politics, tested under trade law. But the chapter meant large public firms, while these two are private. The order asks for a study rather than a rule.