WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Thursday’s vote by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to adopt regulations would enable it to recover funds from businesses that deceive workers about their earnings.

The FTC previously went after companies like Uber Technologies (NYSE.) Inc. in 2017 or Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ.) last year, but was prevented from tackling similar cases by a Supreme Court ruling of April 2021. This Supreme Court decision stated that the FTC improperly used its rules-making powers in order to recover ill-gotten profits.

Two Democrats and two Republicans made up the commission, which voted unanimously for the start of the lengthy process to create a rule about companies deceiving consumers as to how much they might make from gig jobs, multilevel marketing firms, or from an education from a for profit school.

Republican Commissioner Noah Phillips referred to the growth of multilevel marketing firms during the coronavirus epidemic. He stated that the problem is not likely to go away anytime soon.

The Democrats failed to secure the Republican support needed for the study of pharmacy benefit managers (CVS Caremark) that act as intermediaries between pharmaceutical manufacturers and health plans. OptumRx by UnitedHealth Group Inc, (NYSE:), and Cigna Corp Express Scripts (NASDAQ)

After the 2-2 vote, Chair Lina Khan (a Democrat) said, “I must say that I am really disappointed by it.” Ties mean the matter cannot proceed.

Christine Wilson (the other Republican) and Phillips both indicated that they were open to considering the issue again.

PBMs have been criticized bitterly by independent pharmacists. They steer patients to their pharmacy or mail-order and sometimes offer reimbursements less expensive than the price of the drug for the independent pharmacist.