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Vice President Kamala Harris will call for a nationwide ban on price gouging in food and grocery stores on Friday.
In her first 100 days in office, the Democratic presidential candidate will push for the first federal ban on “price gouging” by food companies to prevent them from “unfairly driving up prices for consumers,” her campaign said Wednesday. Harris also wants to give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general the power to impose tough penalties on companies that violate such a ban.
The push comes as inflation continues to be at the forefront of many Americans’ minds – and on their grocery bills. In June, 80% of respondents in Intuit Credit Karma Survey said cost increases were most noticeable in grocery shopping, compared with 51% for gasoline, 31% for utilities, and 27% each for housing and dining out.
Food prices rose by around 25% between 2019 and 2023, which, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, exceeds the increase in consumer goods. Although prices are still high and rising steadily, the pace of these increases has slowed down.
On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that food prices rose 1.1% in July compared to a year earlier, marking the ninth consecutive month of growth below 2%. A major outlier is the Price for eggswhich increased by 5.5% compared to the previous month. One of the reasons for this was the low supply as a result of the bird flu outbreak.
Harris’ opponent, former President Donald Trump, has accused blamed the current administration for the high inflation and expensive food in the US throughout his candidacy, pointing to President Joe Biden’s spending programs. Experts have argues According to ABC News, the main blame lies with the economy’s difficulties in recovering from the pandemic and the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Lina Khanthe chair of the FTC, said earlier this month that she would push for a probe is investigating why food prices have risen so sharply and says an investigation will “shed light on” why Prices and profits at grocery chains “remain high, even though costs appear to have fallen.” In March, the FTC found that the three largest grocery chains – Amazon, KrogerAnd Walmart – raised food prices and made a huge profit because of Pandemic-related supply chain problems.
Harris intends to Highly consolidated meat industrywhich is largely controlled by just a handful of companies that wield immense power over their producers. The Agriculture Department in March updated a century-old law that prohibits meatpackers from retaliating against producers who seek business with competitors.
“For prices to be fair, consumers must have the freedom to choose between competing products,” the campaign said in a statement.
The Democratic candidate would also direct her administration to closely scrutinize mergers between large food companies. Under Khan’s leadership, the FTC is aggressively pursuing antitrust laws against large mergers, including Kroger’s $25 billion offer to acquire Albertsonswhich met with resistance from the agency and several states.
The most important Democratic donors have called Harris should fire Khan if she defeats Trump in November, arguing that her antitrust stance is too aggressive and hurts companies. The FTC has already Microsoft’s $69 billion deal with Activision Blizzard and recently agreed with the Ministry of Justice to Conduct investigations in Microsoft, OpenAIand chip manufacturers NVIDIA.
