The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Agriculture should implement a set of price-gouging regulations based on the New York State Attorney General’s proposal to create guardrails that protect consumers against price-gouging during emergencies.
Impose federal price-gouging regulations to protect consumers against unjust price increases during emergencies.
Occurrences
Impose Federal Price Gouging Regulations
Evidence
Schiff’s campaign affordability agenda says the FTC and USDA should implement price-gouging regulations based on New York’s proposal to create guardrails that protect consumers against price gouging during emergencies.
Schiff joined senators from both parties to introduce legislation aimed at holding meat and poultry companies accountable for anticompetitive behavior and price gouging on groceries, saying he wanted to hold price gougers accountable and ensure fair competition.
The CRS product states that there is currently no federal law specifically addressing price gouging, while noting that bills have been introduced in Congress to prohibit price gouging of gasoline and other fuels.
Assessments
The promised outcome was federal emergency price-gouging regulations protecting consumers from unjust price increases. The evidence shows Schiff later joined legislation addressing grocery/meat-sector price gouging and anticompetitive conduct, which is a concrete federal legislative effort, but it did not enact or implement the broader emergency price-gouging regulatory regime promised through FTC/USDA. Available evidence also indicates no federal law specifically addressing price gouging had been enacted, and the later FTC fee rule concerns price transparency in tickets and lodging rather than emergency price-gouging limits. Because there was a serious attempt but no delivered policy outcome, this should be scored as never with an effort badge.