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FTC Act s. 5: substantiation of AI performance claims

Deceptive acts or practices are unlawful: claims about an AI system's accuracy, performance or fairness need competent and reliable evidence before they are made

By Reviewed

From clause to evidenceThe chain from FTC Act s. 5 (15 U.S.C. 45) to its evidence record, in 6 steps; the text alternative lists them and the facts under the figure state each in full.ClauseFTC Act s. 5FTC Act s. 5Duty holderBusinessesmaking AI…Applies from1938-03-21In forceArtefactClaims registerlinked…LayersLayer 01Layer 03Layer 05Evidence recordEvidence recordv1Same topic elsewhere: no crosswalk topic files this clause yetAs of 2026-09-24 · illustrative, not a claim of conformity From clause to evidenceThe chain from FTC Act s. 5 (15 U.S.C. 45) to its evidence record, in 6 steps; the text alternative lists them and the facts under the figure state each in full.ClauseFTC Act s. 5 · FTC Act s. 5Duty holderBusinesses making AI claimsApplies from1938-03-21 · In forceArtefactClaims register linked…LayersLayer 01Layer 03Layer 05Evidence recordEvidence record v1Same topic elsewhere: no crosswalk topicfiles this clause yetAs of 2026-09-24illustrative, not a claim of conformity
From clause to evidence Build the artefact, then file every output it produces as a record that names AIGE-OBL-USFED-FTC-S5. Drawn from chapter 08.
Text alternative
  • Clause: FTC Act s. 5, FTC Act s. 5.
  • Duty holder: Businesses making AI claims.
  • Applies from: 1938-03-21, In force.
  • Artefact: Claims register linked….
  • Layers: Layer 01, Layer 03, Layer 05.
  • Evidence record: Evidence record v1.
  • Record schema: Evidence record.
  • No crosswalk topic files this clause yet.
Id
AIGE-OBL-USFED-FTC-S5
Instrument
FTC Act s. 5 (15 U.S.C. 45) law
Clause
FTC Act s. 5 (15 U.S.C. 45)
In scope
Businesses making AI claims
Authority
Federal Trade Commission
Applies from
In force · Deception prong since the Wheeler-Lea Act of 1938-03-21; applied to AI accuracy claims in 2025

The artefact that evidences it

Claims register linked to current eval runs; substantiation gate on release copy.

Patterns that build it

Source

Chapter 08, section Federal law that already reaches AI, checked against its sources on the review date above.

Machine-readable

Cite this obligation

García Aibar, J. (2026). FTC Act s. 5: substantiation of AI performance claims (AIGE-OBL-USFED-FTC-S5). In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/obligations/aige-obl-usfed-ftc-s5. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026obligation,
  author       = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title        = {{FTC Act s. 5: substantiation of AI performance claims (AIGE-OBL-USFED-FTC-S5)}},
  howpublished = {In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {0.5.0},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url          = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/obligations/aige-obl-usfed-ftc-s5},
  note         = {Version 0.5.0}
}