White House Expands Efforts to Aid Consumers
By Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Wednesday announced a series of measures aimed at protecting U.S. consumers. These include a crackdown on price-fixing in food and agricultural markets, draft merger guidelines, and an expansion of the war on junk fees to the rental housing market.
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President Joe Biden, known for his focus on corporate greed and power, addressed the government’s latest actions at the fifth meeting of the Competition Council. He emphasized the importance of fairness and the need to combat inflation. “Folks are tired of being played for suckers,” he said.
The White House’s efforts come two years after Biden’s executive order creating the council and its mission to tackle anti-competitive practices. The administration has already targeted meatpacking, ocean shipping, and consumer junk fees.
According to the White House, decades of misguided economic philosophy have led to increased concentration in three-fourths of U.S. industries, resulting in higher prices and lower wages for the average American household.
Biden stated, ”We cannot accept bad mergers that lead to mass layoffs, higher prices, and fewer options for workers and consumers. Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation.”
Hannah Garden Monheit, the new director of Competition Council Policy at the National Economic Council, emphasized the administration’s commitment to using all available tools to curb anti-competitive practices.
While the crackdown on junk fees has garnered bipartisan and public support, industry representatives have criticized the increased oversight, labeling it as “regulatory overreach.”
Sean Heather, a senior official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, acknowledged the importance of transparency but expressed concerns about overly prescriptive rules for junk fees and mergers. He also pointed out that government data shows the U.S. economy is no more concentrated now than it was two decades ago.
Morgan Harper, a former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau official, welcomed Biden’s efforts to promote competition, highlighting the benefits for smaller firms and entrepreneurs. “We don’t really have a competitive marketplace unless we have strong government enforcement,” Harper said. ”Concentration issues all over the economy are hurting workers, small businesses, and consumers.”
Rental Housing Fees Targeted
Biden announced that three major rental housing platforms, Zillow, Apartments.com, and AffordableHousing.com, have agreed to disclose upfront data on rental costs, including application fees and ”convenience fees” for online rent payment or trash disposal. While this move alone will not lower fees, increased transparency is expected to enable renters to compare costs and potentially reduce fees.
Biden has consistently called for action against surprise fees that significantly increase consumer costs. Three major airlines have already agreed to eliminate fees for children to sit with their parents.
Other Actions
In addition to the rental housing fee crackdown, the White House announced draft merger guidelines that will subject Big Tech companies like Amazon.com and Alphabet’s Google to tougher scrutiny. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren praised these guidelines as a significant shift after decades of lax antitrust enforcement, stating that they would benefit American small businesses, workers, and consumers.
The Department of Agriculture, along with 31 states and Washington, D.C., also unveiled efforts to target price fixing and other anti-competitive behavior in the food and agriculture sectors.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; additional reporting by Diane Bartz and Leah Douglas; Editing by Leslie Adler, Heather Timmons, Daniel Wallis, and Diane Craft)
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