The Biden Administration recently convened the first meeting of its Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing (Strike Force), an interagency initiative announced in March 2024 to “root out and stop illegal corporate behavior that hikes prices on American families through anti-competitive, unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent practices.” The Strike Force, which is co-chaired by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), held an hour-long, public meeting on August 1, 2024 during which its various member agencies highlighted the steps they have taken to date in support of the Biden Administration’s goal of lowering prices and making life more affordable for average Americans.
The Strike Force’s tone was clear throughout the meeting and perhaps best summarized by Jonathan Kanter, the Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, who remarked that “Americans of all walks of life are tired of being ripped off.” In many ways, though, much of what the agency members discussed was a summary of their accomplishments over the course of the Biden Administration rather than the discrete actions they have taken since the formation of the Strike Force in March 2024 or future enforcement plans. For example, Jessica Rosenworcel, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, highlighted her multi-year collaboration with Congress to enact legislation to lower the price of calls to and from prison by 90%. However, there were some notable exceptions.
Several agencies focused their updates on healthcare costs and the role of private equity in healthcare markets. Assistant Attorney General Kanter emphasized that the United States has the best doctors, but the price of their services is “outrageous and getting worse.” Andrea Palm, the Deputy Secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), proclaimed that “[c]ompetition is key in the healthcare space to a healthier and fair future for all Americans” and that HHS is looking into acquisitions of nursing homes by private equity firms. This is consistent with prior statements by FTC Chair Lina Khan, who has said that “[o]ver the last two years, the FTC has heard an outpouring of concern about the ways that private equity buyouts in health care have worsened outcomes for workers and patients alike.”[1] These statements confirm that multiple federal agencies are focused on the healthcare industry and that deals or conduct involving companies linked to private equity firms are likely to receive additional scrutiny.
The FTC, DOJ, and Department of Agriculture (DOA) each identified the cost of groceries as an area receiving increased attention. FTC Chair Khan mentioned that groceries are a “top concern for Americans,” especially because costs have fallen and supply chains have recovered but prices remain elevated. Chair Khan announced that the FTC was launching an inquiry into these apparent pricing discrepancies. Her comments about the price of food were echoed by Assistant Attorney General Kanter, who mentioned the Division’s efforts to block mergers that would have increased the price of food even further; and by Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Xochitl Torres Small, who alluded to the “unprecedented” steps the DOA has taken to stabilize agricultural markets and incentivize competition through the American Rescue Plan.[2]
Several agencies also highlighted the need to eliminate “junk fees” across the economy. In perhaps the most salient example of how the Strike Force was working to lower prices, Department of Transportation (DOT) Acting General Counsel Subash Iyer discussed a proposed rule to ban airlines from charging parents extra fees to sit next to their young children. As the Biden Administration continues to push for results in an election year, the DOT, FTC, and other federal agencies are likely to continue to identify and target these types of fees because the costs are easy to define and directly affect consumers.
Although the Strike Force epitomizes the Biden Administration’s whole-of-government approach to competition issues, the virtual meeting focused almost entirely on the efforts of individual Strike Force member agencies. Conspicuously absent from the meeting was any discussion about inter-agency collaborations and future plans for the Strike Force. This may be in part because of the political uncertainties of the upcoming presidential election, but it also reflects the difficulty of effectively coordinating across agencies.
No matter the results of the November election, the rising costs that precipitated the creation of this Strike Force will continue to be a pain point for most Americans, and therefore will continue to receive attention. The Strike Force has set the stage for coordinated agency action on pricing across several sectors of the U.S. economy but, at this time, its focus appears to be more limited. It remains to be seen what impact the Strike Force will have in these areas, and whether the Strike Force would be used as a vehicle to implement the recent proposal by Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris to ban “price gouging” in the grocery and food industries.[3] In the meantime, whether through the Strike Force or some other mechanism, federal agency focus on pricing issues does not seem likely to fade away anytime soon.
[1] Remarks by Chair Lina M. Khan on Private Capital, Public Impact Workshop on Private Equity in Healthcare, Federal Trade Commission (March 5, 2024), available at https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/final-trancsript-ftc-opp-be-private-equity-healthcare-workshop-3-5-24.pdf.
[2] Post by @DepSecXoch, X (July 11, 2024), available at https://x.com/DepSecXoch/status/1811502735679979553.
[3] Jeff Stein, Kamala Harris to propose ban on ‘price gouging’ for food, groceries, Washington Post (August 15, 2024), available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/08/15/kamala-harris-economic-policy-2024/.
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