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Welcome to the Economic Liberties’ bi-monthly newsletter, where we bring you in-depth updates on the issues that matter to the anti-monopoly movement. As a reminder, make sure you’re following our Substack, The Economic Populist [[link removed]] , for week-to-week updates on what we’re tracking.
THE LATEST
House GOP Loads Up “Big, Beautiful Bill” with Corporate Giveaways: The “Big, Beautiful” reconciliation package’s journey through the House of Representatives has been a story of one obscene corporate handout after another. Last month, Judiciary Committee Chair Jordan tried to sneak in language that would have stripped the Federal Trade Commission of its antitrust capacity — and effectively repealed Section 5 of the FTC Act, as Research Director Matt Stoller exposed in a rapid-response blog post [[link removed]] (the language was removed shortly after). A week later, language was added to the bill that would impose a 10-year moratorium [[link removed]] on state and local regulation and enforcement related to AI, and would terminate the IRS’ Direct File program, a pilot program to enable taxpayers to file taxes for free. As we explained early [[link removed]] on, this kind of policy would stifle efforts to crack down on algorithmic price fixing (including rent prices) and other automated decision-making systems — key battlegrounds in the fight for a fair price. As time has gone on, even Republicans that voted for the bill have expressed their concerns about the provision, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene recently said she “ did [[link removed]] not know about [[link removed]] ” the section before voting on it. The giveaway to Silicon Valley, as well as the one to TurboTax, remains in the bill as it moves through the Senate.
Epic Win Against Apple Unlocks Innovation for Developers: In a ruling stemming back to a complaint by game developer Epic Games, a federal judge ruled Apple must allow all U.S. app developers to let consumers make cheaper purchases through the developers’ websites, rather than being forced to pay Apple’s 20% monopoly tax. As one headline from The Verge [[link removed]] put it, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers “blew up Apple’s control of the App Store.” The decision is already being hailed as a turning point by developers across the tech industry, with companies like Patreon [[link removed]] , Spotify [[link removed]] , Substack [[link removed]] , Match Group [[link removed]] , and others praising the ruling for kickstarting innovation in a stagnant mobile app ecosystem.
DOJ and FTC Cases Against Big Tech Keep Moving: Antitrust action against Big Tech continues to be a place of bipartisan agreement. Both the Trump and Biden administrations have pursued action against companies like Google, Meta, Apple, and Amazon for their illegal monopolistic conduct. Most recently, the DOJ’s landmark case against Google’s search monopoly, which could result in a structural divestiture of Chrome and potentially Android, wrapped in May, with Judge Amit Mehta slated to issue a ruling on remedies by August. The FTC v. Meta trial also wrapped last month after unearthing a series of shocking and damaging revelations about Meta’s monopolization of friends-and-family social networking. Read Big Tech on Trial’s [[link removed]] daily coverage to get caught up.
Oregon Secures Massive Win Against Healthcare Corporatization: The Beaver State made history this week, becoming the first in the nation to close a series of harmful loopholes [[link removed]] in the states’ corporate practice of medicine (CPOM) laws — taking a crucial step to reverse harmful corporatization in the medical field. These loopholes “allowed corporate entities, including many private equity firms, to hoover up medical practices and cause a range of harms, including higher prices, worse care, and deteriorating conditions for workers,” as Director of State and Local Policy Pat Garofalo wrote in his Boondoggle [[link removed]] newsletter. Despite an immense lobbying campaign from Big Medicine, the bill was signed into law this week by Governor Tina Kotek — after Economic Liberties mobilized a coalition and submitted testimony in support [[link removed]] earlier this year. This is a huge win for patients and medical professionals, many of which are frustrated with how hyper-corporatization is making it harder to receive and administer care. But Big Medicine won’t just roll over. As Senior Fellow Hayden Rooke-Ley said in our statement [[link removed]] on the bill’s signing, Wall Street and healthcare conglomerates will certainly threaten to shutter practices, which is why its crucial that the legislature also take steps to “shore up and expand capacity of clinician-led practices and community clinics.”
Arkansas Breaks Up Big Medicine, Makes History: In a major win for patients and independent pharmacies, Arkansas became the first state in the nation to ban [[link removed]] pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from owning pharmacies — a commonsense structural separation policy pushed and supported by the Break Up Big Medicine [[link removed]] initiative. Signed into law by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the bill targets healthcare giants — CVS, Cigna, and UnitedHealth Group — whose PBM arms steer patients towards their own pharmacies, squeeze out competing independent pharmacies, and jack up drug prices. The law mirrors a bill [[link removed]] the federal level from Senators Warren and Hawley, and comes at a crucial time. Economic Liberties research [[link removed]] shows that at least 25 Arkansas pharmacies closed between January 2024 and February 2025, amid hundreds of other closures across the country. Governor Sanders penned a recent op-ed in the New York Times [[link removed]] echoing the central themes of Break Up Big Medicine — speaking to the concentration crisis, structural conflict of interest issues, and corporate-crafted red tape that permeate the healthcare industry. In the face of astro-turfed backlash [[link removed]] and impending legal threats [[link removed]] from the PBM lobby, Governor Sanders says her state “isn’t scared” and “won’t sacrifice [their] veterans, seniors or rural patients in service of P.B.M. stock prices.”
Economic Liberties Partners with International Fire Fighters Union to Fight Fire Truck Monopoly: Last month, Economic Liberties and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) sent a joint letter [[link removed]] urging the DOJ and FTC to launch an investigation into private equity-driven consolidation in fire truck and emergency vehicle manufacturing. The letter builds on a January 2025 piece [[link removed]] from antitrust lawyer Basel Musharbash for Research Director Matt Stoller’s The BIG Newsletter, which sparked national media [[link removed]] awareness — and scrutiny from Congress [[link removed]] — of how private equity money has transformed a once-competitive fire truck market into a concentrated oligopoly. As a result of skyrocketing prices and delivery delays, fire departments across the country are being forced to operate outdated, unreliable equipment. This had deadly consequences in Los Angeles, where more than 100 trucks were out of service during recent wildfires. "It's really a critical hazard in public safety," IAFF President Edward Kelly told Reuters [[link removed]] in coverage of our joint letter . "It serves the investor well, but it doesn't serve the public when you call 911 and the ladder truck is out of service."
Airlines Industry Corporate Pardons Leave Passengers Stranded: One of the Trump administration’s first moves on aviation enforcement was to quietly drop [[link removed]] a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines. The suit, filed under Secretary Buttigieg sought to hold Southwest accountable for chronically over-scheduling flights, a deceptive practice that caused 180 disruptions over five months in 2022. Transportation Secretary Duffy’s choice to kill it sends a clear message [[link removed]] to the big airlines: you won’t face consequences for running roughshod over passengers. The pattern continued last week, when the Trump DOJ cut a non-prosecution agreement [[link removed]] with Boeing, in exchange for a $1.1 billion, to let the company off the hook for its role in two horrific Boeing 737 MAX accidents that claimed 346 lives. At the same time, Duffy has laid off more than 400 FAA employees [[link removed]] this year, skipped key hearings on FAA reauthorization, and is now blaming past leadership for problems he helped create when, as a member of Congress, he voted against [[link removed]] FAA funding in 2019. As concerns grow about aviation safety heading into a busy summer travel season, lax oversight, blame games, and corporate pardons are the last thing American flyers need.
Economic Liberties Releases Model Bill For States to Stop Corporate Takeover of Vet Practices : Over a year after Managing Editor Helaine Olen exposed how private equity roll-ups are jacking up the price of veterinary care in The Atlantic [[link removed]] , the article is still making waves [[link removed]] . Now, Economic Liberties is equipping state legislators to stop the practice, releasing model legislation [[link removed]] designed to ensure medical decisions are made independently by medical professionals — restoring independent and community-rooted vet care to protect families. A decade ago, less than 10 percent of veterinary practices were corporate-owned. Today, between 25 percent and 50 percent of veterinary practices, and 75 percent of specialty practices, are under corporate management. That consolidation has led to declining quality of care, pressure on vets to upsell unnecessary services, and prices rising more than twice as fast as the Consumer Price Index [[link removed]] . With vet visits falling [[link removed]] and shelter intakes surging [[link removed]] , this issue is becoming impossible to ignore — which is why its so crucial that states start to act.
Federal Court Rulings Whiplash Trump’s Tariffs: Some of Trump’s tariffs hit a legal obstacle late last month when a federal trade court invalidated all tariffs the President imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). That includes all February 1st tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada, as well as the 10% across-the-board and higher tariffs on almost evert country in the world announced on April 2. By striking down the executive orders underlying those tariffs, the court, also reversed the termination of the de minimis loophole for Chinese imports. But the following day, a federal appeals court stayed the ruling [[link removed]] temporarily, keeping the tariffs and end of China de minimis in place for the time being.
What happens now? It’s unclear. An appeals court will decide by the end of June whether the tariffs stay on hold until all of the appeals on the merits of the case can be heard. But, ultimately, the question of whether IEEPA provides a president authority to unilaterally impose tariffs on most countries in the world indefinitely will be settled by the Supreme Court — a decision that will define executive trade powers for years to come. Trump may consider new strategies, from invoking other trade statutes to issuing an executive order to end de minimis again based on different authorities. But for now, Trump administration negotiations with scores of countries about Trump’s tariffs have not focused on rebalancing U.S. trade or rebuilding domestic manufacturing, and instead appear increasingly tailored to benefit political allies and corporate insiders. That’s why we’ve been pushing hard for transparency [[link removed]] from the administration as these deals come together. For a full breakdown on Trump’s “tariff rollercoaster,” as Rethink Trade Director Lori Wallach has put it, read her most recent piece in The Economic Populist [[link removed]] .


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