Red Flags Come Down, For Now

Thank you Federal Trade Commission.

The Red Flags Rule, the subject of my last post, was to become effect tomorrow. My law firm has been busy putting compliance programs into place for private businesses that realized belatedly they were impacted by the Rule’s broad reach.

Well, the FTC finally caught on that many businesses are still unaware of the Rule, so the effective date has been postponed to November 1, 2009 to allow the FTC staff to “redouble” their education efforts.

Human-owned businesses have much on their minds of late—like keeping the doors open. Identity theft is a concern, to be sure, but in business triage it has not been at top of many minds or budgets.

Now you have a little more breathing room to meet with your business lawyer to see if your company is covered and then to put your own program in place and avoid risking both a fine and, if the Rule works as planned, being defrauded.