About E-Filing

Electronic Filing (E-Filing) refers to the electronic filing of notices of appearance, pleadings, and other documents in Part 3 adjudicative proceedings before an Administrative Law Judge or before the full Commission through the FTC E-Filing System.

For filers, E-Filing is free, convenient, fast, secure, and the most accurate way to submit documents and to serve public documents to complaint counsel and respondent's counsel electronically. E-Filing also reduces paper, printing, and delivery costs - making it environmentally friendly.

The E-Filing system is available 24 hours a day, except when the system undergoes maintenance. System maintenance will be announced in advance on the E-Filing homepage.

If the E-Filing system is unavailable, the FTC will post this information in the announcements section on the www.ftcefile.gov home page. Otherwise the E-Filing system will be available 24 hours a day.

The FTC E-Filing system supports Microsoft Internet Explorer (ver. 7.0 to 10.0) and Mozilla Firefox (ver. 2 and 3).

New features and enhancements (e.g. the ability to file in camera or confidential documents through the system and e-Notification) will also apply to pending cases, unless the Commission orders otherwise.

Submit a Filing

The E-filing system may be used to file public, in camera, or confidential documents with the Commission.

Documents must be formatted for electronic filing into Portable Document Format ("PDF") and the file name is required to be no longer than 128 characters. Each page of the document must be clearly labeled "Public", "In Camera", or "Confidential". All PDFs must be full text searchable prior to uploading into the E-Filing system. Parties are encouraged to use the "Convert to PDF" function for MS Office and WordPerfect files to ensure the PDF is full text searchable. Please DO NOT compress large PDF files to reduce size.

If you receive an error message while uploading a file stating that "E-filing is not able to save the uploaded PDF, it may be corrupt", try using Adobe Acrobat to "optimize" the PDF by saving the PDF as a "reduced size PDF". In Adobe Acrobat XI Standard this is done by the following menu selections: File -> Save As Other -> Reduced Size PDF. Once saved as a Reduced Size PDF, try uploading the file to E-Filing again.

The E-Filing system will accept single documents up to 150MB in size. No more than 150MB may be uploaded in a single submission. If you have a document larger than 150MB or need to submit more than 150MB in a single submission, please contact the Records and Filings office at (202) 326-2932.

Yes. Each individual document must be no larger than 150MB. No more than 150MB may be uploaded in a single submission. If you have files larger than 150MB or need to submit more than 150MB in a single submission, please contact the Records and Filings office at (202) 326-2932.

Documents filed using the electronic filing system must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time to be deemed timely filed that day. Note: All documents not filed using the electronic filing system must be received in the Office of the Secretary by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time to be deemed timely filed that day.

After submission, the system will display a confirmation page. Print the page for your records. If you have signed up for email notifications, you will also receive an e-mail receipt confirming a successful transmission. PLEASE NOTE: Documents are not considered accepted until the clerk reviews the electronic document. You will receive another e-mail notification when the clerk accepts or rejects the filing, usually within one business day.

Yes. You need to serve a copy of your submission to the other parties in the case. You have the option of serving electronic copies of public documents to other parties via the E-Filing System. However, in camera or confidential documents cannot be served to other parties via the E-Filing system. In addition, the E-Filing system cannot be used to serve any documents to third parties. Consult the Commission's rules for your service obligations.

If you are filing a pleading before the Administrative Law Judge in your proceeding, paper copies of electronically filed documents should not be submitted unless otherwise specifically requested by the Administrative Law Judge.

System Rules

No, you are not required to retain a paper copy of all electronically filed documents.

No. It is strictly forbidden to use another filer's credentials and is a breach of the FTC's security policy.

No. Each attorney must have a separate E-Filing account under his/her own name.

Yes. Electronically filed documents must be signed. You can use a scanned signature image, an "s/" followed by the name of the filer under whose E-Filing login and password the document is submitted, or any another signature method permitted by the Secretary. Please remember that, under the Commission's rules, signing a document constitutes a representation by the signer that he or she has read it; that to the best of his or her knowledge, information, and belief, the statements made in it are true; that it is not interposed for delay; and that to the best of his or her knowledge, information, and belief, it complies with the Commission's rules in 16 C.F.R. part 4.

Account Issues

If you are getting a message that says "incorrect password and/or username" verify your login and password and that your Caps Lock key is not on (your password is case sensitive). If you have forgotten your login or password, click here to reset your username/password.

The system will lock a user's account after three failed login attempts. If you have locked your account, email the Help Desk at ftcefilesupport@icfi.com or call 703-934-3515 to get it unlocked.

All information (except your username) can be updated. You can change your password or any other user account information at any time by clicking on the "Update User Account Information" on the left navigation panel once you are logged in. After you update your information, make sure to save your changes before exiting.

Status Notifications

Yes. Additional emails can be added by entering them in the Additional Emails box on the E-Filing submission page. Listed recipients will receive email notification from the system every time the submission status is updated.

Prior to contacting the FTC, please verify that your spam filters are not blocking e-mails from admin@ftcefiling.gov. If this is not the problem, please contact the FTC E-Filing Help Desk at (703) 934-3515 or by e-mail at ftcefilesupport@icfi.com.

If your submission is filed incorrectly, the Records and Filings office will indicate the problem, and return all original recipients' submissions in E-Filing. You will then receive an email notification of the problem and what action is required to correct the submission.

If you file a document incorrectly, the Records and Filings office will notify all original recipients via email. The notification will specify the type of error and indicate whether any further action is required. Once corrections are made, documents can be refiled through the system.

No. In order to check the status of your filing, you must log into the E-Filing system. All properly filed submissions that are public can also be found on the webpage for your specific adjudicative proceeding through the FTC website.

A large file (e.g. 8MB or above) typically takes a few minutes to process. In most browsers a status bar located towards the bottom of the web page shows progress of the upload. If the process fails, the E-Filing system will generate an error message or a browser time out message will be displayed.

Contact Us

The Help Desk is available 8:30 AM to 8:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

Please contact the Records and Filings office at (202) 326-2932. The Records and Filings office is open 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.