Executives inside and outside of automotive who might already be skeptical of what happens in Washington, D.C., probably aren’t surprised a major federal agency conducted a closed-door meeting.

But the Federal Trade Commission acknowledged that it orchestrated one last week focused on the Unfair or Deceptive Fees Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).

What the FTC officially called a “virtual ex parte meeting” was led by commissioner Melissa Holyoak’s office.

According to a news release, the meeting also included Howard Beales, who is a former director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection and now is a professor emeritus of strategic management and public policy at the George Washington School of Business.

Also involved in the meeting was Timothy Muris, who previously was chair of the FTC and now is a George Mason University Foundation professor of law.

An explanation from another agency — the Federal Communications Commission — defined an ex parte meeting this way:

“An ex parte presentation is a communication, written or oral, directed to the merits or outcome of a proceeding that, if written, is not served on all the parties to a proceeding, and if oral, is made without giving all the parties to the proceeding advance notice and an opportunity for them to be present.”

While being one of the newest commissioners at the FTC, Holyoak hasn’t been bashful about questioning how the regulator operates.

In August, Holyoak shared a 277-word, single-page statement following the FTC proceeding with allegations of “payment packing” and more involving a trio of Texas dealerships that are part of Asbury Automotive Group.

What makes the perspective Holyoak even more interesting is the fact that most recently, she served as solicitor general with the Utah attorney general’s office, where she oversaw the civil appeals, criminal appeals, constitutional defense and special litigation, and antitrust and data privacy divisions.

However, Holyoak closed that August statement saying, “We should embrace transparency, not shrink from it.”

In the news release about last week’s meeting, the FTC also said:

“In accordance with the provisions of the government in the Sunshine Act, notice is given that the Federal Trade Commission has determined and the general counsel has certified that the meeting will be closed to the public pursuant to 5 U.S.C. Sections 552b(c)(3),(4),(7)(A),(10) and 552b(d)(4) and that the public interest does not require the meeting to be open to the public.”