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FEATURED: The President Cracks Down on Junk Fees
U.S. President Biden holds a meeting of the White House Competition Council in Washington [[link removed]]
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra and FTC Chair Lina Khan have made abolishing junk fees — which cost families tens of billions of dollars a year — a core part of their agencies’ priorities. Now, as a way to tackle inflation, the President has tasked his entire administration with following their lead.
If you’ve bought a concert ticket, car, or gift card, overdrawn a bank account, or made any number of other common transactions, you’ll know that powerful corporations nickel and dime consumers out of billions of dollars in tacked on, often undisclosed fees. That’s why, earlier this year, Economic Liberties submitted a deeply researched comment [[link removed]] to the FTC on how to use its authority to protect families against these unfair pricing strategies. And for a personal take on why junk fees matter to families trying to make ends meet, watch More Perfect Union’s interview [[link removed]] with Director Chopra.
THE LATEST
Standing Up to Monopoly Middlemen . Whether you care about skyrocketing drug prices or collapsing main street businesses, monopoly middlemen deserve a big part of the blame — and enforcers are starting to step up to the plate. To help explain why and how Congress and enforcers can use laws on the books to decentralize economic power and stop abusive corporate conduct, Economic Liberties published a new report, “ Price [[link removed]] Discrimination and Power Buyers [[link removed]] .” Read more in POLITICO [[link removed]] and tune in tonight for our “ Thinking Big [[link removed]] ” virtual talk with Columbia Law Professor Kathryn Judge, the author of “ D IRECT: The Rise of the Middleman Economy and the Power of Going to the Source. ”
Corporate Power Raises Costs for Black Communities. In recognition of the Congressional Black Caucus’ Annual Legislative Conference, the American Economic Liberties Project is hosting a roundtable discussion exploring how concentrated corporate power harms Black communities featuring civic, labor, political, and religious leaders including Congresswoman Bonnie Watson-Coleman, Terry Melvin, and Cy Richardson. The conversation will be moderated by Economic Liberties’ Director of Policy and Advocacy Morgan Harper. Learn more here [[link removed]] .
A New Coalition to End Airline Greed . Just days after 38 state attorneys general wrote to Congress to express frustration with the Department of Transportation and ask for enforcement authority over the airline industry, Economic Liberties released model legislation to do just that. Our legislation, covered by The Boston Globe [[link removed]] , was endorsed by a broad coalition of advocates, including Business Travel Coalition, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, National Consumers League, Public Citizen, Public Interest Research Group, and the Revolving Door Project. And alongside partners including Groundwork Action, Unrig Our Economy, and Take on Wall Street, our sister organization, Fight Corporate Monopolies, launched a new campaign to End Airline Greed [[link removed]] . Be sure to read the story in The Boston Globe [[link removed]] — we highly recommend the print edition. You’ll see the story front and center on 1A.
New Legislation to Lower Prices. As corporate profit margins [[link removed]] hit 70-year highs, Reps. Katie Porter, Jerry Nadler, David Cicilline, Hakeem Jeffries, and Pramila Jayapal introduced “The Competitive Prices Act,” a new bill [[link removed]] modeled after draft legislation Economic Liberties released [[link removed]] in April to combat collusive behavior that raises prices and lowers wages. Read more about our bill in The New York Times [[link removed]] .
New Hope for Newspapers & Democracy. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), a desperately-needed lifeline for news outlets that are being eaten alive by Big Tech’s business model. The JCPA allows newspapers to negotiate together for fair compensation for their work — something our joint report, “ Minority-Owned [[link removed]] Media and the Digital Duopoly, [[link removed]] ” co-authored with News Media Alliance and Media Justice, noted will be important for supporting a diverse, decentralized news media. For more on what’s at stake for news outlets and why the JCPA is key to reversing the decline of local news, read Economic Liberties’ Research Director Matt Stoller in Fast Company [[link removed]] .
The Corporate Power Fight Sweeps the States . More than 15,000 policymakers, advocates, and citizens on the ground in dozens of states joined Economic Liberties’ three part State and Local workshop series to learn how to take on Big Tech, fight back against corporate subsidies, and strengthen state antitrust laws. You can catch the series here [[link removed]] and read through our policy toolkits here [[link removed]] . And read more about Fight Corporate Monopolies [[link removed]] ’ new state and local task force, a coalition of state and local leaders including IL Sen. Robert Peters [[link removed]] , PA Rep. Sara Innamorato [[link removed]] , and NY Deputy Senate Majority Leader Michael Gianaris [[link removed]] , in The American Prospect [[link removed]] , which profiled Economic Liberties and Fight Corporate Monopolies extensive effort to build and support the anti-monopoly movement in the states.
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