In this article published by Law360, Mark Kalpin, Patrick Bernhardt and former Associate Joseph Jerome explain why companies should stay abreast of the FTC's actions as it continues to evaluate consumer protection-related issues regarding solar energy and take appropriate steps to ensure that their marketing practices and contracts conform to applicable law and best industry practices.

The rapid growth of homegrown solar energy solutions is leading to an environment where an uneven patchwork of policies may lead to inconsistent growth for solar power, according to the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission. To learn more about how consumers are potentially being impacted by the “complex matrix of laws, regulations, policies, subsidies and incentives” at play, the FTC held a workshop on June 21, 2016, to examine consumer protection issues in the rooftop solar industry—also known as solar “distributed generation.” Beyond exploring a wide range of issues related to rate design, competition and state net metering policies, the workshop signaled a growing interest among federal and state regulators to address—potentially through the issuance of binding regulations—perceived consumer protection challenges in the industry. Read the full article