Grolier Incorporated, a Corporation and American Peoples Press, Etc. v. Federal Trade Commission

On March 13, 1978, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) entered a final cease and desist order against Grolier, Incorporated and 14 of its wholly-owned subsidiaries (Grolier) designed to correct Grolier’s adjudged violations of 15 U.S.C. § 45 . By this appeal, pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 45 , Grolier seeks to have that order set aside because of alleged procedural and substantive errors. We set aside the order and remand this case to the FTC for further consideration.

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Grolier is engaged in the door-to-door and mail order sale of encyclopedias and related reference publications. On March 9, 1972, the FTC issued an administrative complaint charging Grolier with unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with its sales activi-. ties, pricing representations, promotion techniques, recruitment practices, debt collection, and mail order operations. The case was initially assigned to an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), who, after presiding at hearings throughout 1973 and 1974, retired from federal service before rendering a decision. A second ALJ was then assigned to complete the case, but he promptly recused himself. In February 1975,…