The Federal Trade Commission's
Guides for the Law Book Industry

In January 2000, the Federal Trade Commission rescinded its Guides for the Law Book Industry (16 CFR Part 256), which had been developed in the 1970's in response to widespread complaints about legal publishers. The guides had served primarily as a standard of acceptable practices by legal information providers without necessarily having the force of law.

Although the FTC Guides are no longer in effect, they are still valuable for historical purposes and to help our members better understand the background issues involved as AALL moves forward from this FTC decision.

Included on this page are links to the full text of the FTC Guidelines as well as a record of actions taken by AALL in the review process. We also include a summary and analysis of the FTC Guidelines that was prepared and offered as part of a hand-out at a CRIV-sponsored program in Anaheim.