Open Markets Institute Welcomes "Fair Prices for Local Businesses Act"
“This bill strengthens the existing Robinson-Patman Act by extending its coverage to services and undoing Supreme Court misinterpretations of the law...
And empowers the federal government and private parties to end the widespread abuse of buyer power in today’s economy.” - OMI Legal Director Sandeep Vaheesan
Washington, DC - The Open Markets Institute today praised U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and his colleagues for introducing the Fair Prices for Local Businesses Act, landmark legislation to curb corporate price discrimination and restore fair competition for small businesses across the country.
For decades, failure to enforce our country's antitrust laws has allowed dominant corporations to use their market power to secure preferential pricing from suppliers, forcing independent grocers, restaurants, and retailers to pay more for the exact same goods and services. These practices have helped drive widespread small business closures, weakened local economies, and raised prices for American families.
The Fair Prices for Local Businesses Act would modernize and strengthen enforcement of longstanding antitrust protections, including the Robinson-Patman Act, by closing legal loopholes and equipping regulators and small businesses with stronger tools to challenge discriminatory pricing practices.
“Senator Murphy’s Fair Prices for Local Businesses Act is an essential effort to fight the extraordinary buyer power of large corporations,” said Sandeep Vaheesan, Legal Director at the Open Markets Institute. "Giants like Amazon and Walmart use their market muscle to squeeze suppliers and their workers, extract discriminatory discounts and other concessions, and thereby gain an unfair and illegitimate advantage over rivals, whether regional chains or mom-and-pop stores. This bill strengthens the existing Robinson-Patman Act by extending its coverage to services and undoing Supreme Court misinterpretations of the law and empowers the federal government and private parties to end the widespread abuse of buyer power in today’s economy,”
The legislation includes several key reforms:
Eliminates the “meeting competition” defense that has enabled large retailers to demand preferential pricing;
Holds dominant buyers accountable by easing burdens of proof in enforcement actions;
Expands protections to cover services such as payment processing and delivery platforms;
Ensures victims of price discrimination can recover meaningful damages.
“Fair competition depends on clear rules that prevent dominant corporations from rigging the system,” Vaheesan added. “This bill will help ensure that independent businesses can compete on the merits—and that American families benefit from lower prices and more choice.”
The Fair Prices for Local Businesses Act builds on renewed antitrust enforcement efforts at the federal and state levels and reflects growing bipartisan concern over the power of dominant firms to distort markets at the expense of small businesses and consumers.
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The Open Markets Institute has long advocated that the Robinson-Patman Act should be revived to prevent dominant firms from using buyer power to extract discriminatory pricing, including through two landmark papers and via numerous articles, testimony, events, and briefings. Members of Congress, including Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal, have cited OMI’s RPA papers in urging the Federal Trade Commission to revive enforcement of the law.
“The Robinson-Patman Act as a Fair Competition Measure”, by Vaheesan and Open Markets Chief Economist Brian Callaci, and Senior Legal Analyst Daniel Hanley
“Controlling Buyer and Seller Power: Reviving Enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act,” by Daniel Hanley
“How an Old Antitrust Law Could Foster a Fairer Retail Sector, by Vaheesan and Callaci
“Everyday Higher Prices,” by Phil Longman
“Fighting the Big Grocery Monopoly,” By Claire Kelloway
In 2022, the Open Markets Institute and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance held the Midwest Form on Fair Markets to engage local growers, sellers, and small businesses on challenges and policy solutions, like the RPA, to improve prices and fair competition. There, then-FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya delivered remarks on “Returning to Fairness” and stated his priority to revive enforcement of the law.
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