MSCC Praises Republican Leaders Urging FTC and DOJ to Enforce Robinson Patman Act
Washington, D.C. — The Main Street Competition Coalition today welcomed Congressional Republican letters led by Rep. Mike Rulli (R-OH) in the House and Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) in the Senate, urging the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to enforce the Robinson-Patman Act to address anticompetitive economic discrimination against independent business and agriculture producers.
The letters follow President Trump’s recent Executive Order establishing a task force to investigate whether anticompetitive conduct is driving up food prices for American families.
“Support from the White House and Congress to confront anticompetitive conduct that raises food prices is arriving at exactly the right time. Main Street businesses are doing everything they can to compete and keep prices down for their customers, but when powerful buyers game the system, retailers and operators are denied the ability to compete fairly. Families shouldn’t be paying more at the checkout because our existing laws aren't being enforced,” said Chris Jones, who leads the Main Street Competition Coalition and is the head lobbyist for the National Grocers Association.
The timing of these letters is underscored by a recently unsealed FTC Robinson-Patman complaint pointing to Walmart inducing sweetheart deals from a major food manufacturer while actively working to raise its rivals’ costs. Coupled with recent Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta research linking higher local market concentration to higher prices, especially during periods of inflation, the complaint exposes the failure of economic theories that justified abandoning Robinson-Patman enforcement during the so-called “consumer welfare” revolution.
“For more than forty years, we were told that ‘might makes right’ and that buyer power would lower prices,” Jones continued. “The evidence now shows the opposite. Consolidation has grown so extreme that it is being used to increase prices on competitors and consumers alike. Both FTC Commissioners have written extensively about how buyer power can be abused to raise consumer prices. It’s time to enforce the laws already on the books.”
The coalition emphasized that the Rulli and Grassley letters demonstrate that RobinsonPatman enforcement is not a partisan issue, but a bipartisan response to rising prices and concentrated markets.
Matt Seiler of the National Community Pharmacists Association thanked Republican lawmakers for their leadership and highlighted the law’s importance to pharmacy competition.
“We appreciate the members of Congress who signed these letters and recognized that Robinson-Patman remains a vital tool,” Seiler said. “In pharmacy, dominant chains that own PBMs are able to reimburse themselves at higher rates than their competitors. Enforcing Robinson-Patman would help address that imbalance and restore fair competition for independent community pharmacies.”
Bill Bullard of R-CALF USA stressed that buyer power harms agriculture producers as well as retailers.
“Retail consolidation and buyer power are major reasons cattle ranchers are forced to sell into increasingly concentrated markets,” Bullard said. “Robinson-Patman enforcement would help create a more competitive retail sector, giving ranchers more buyers for their products and a fairer marketplace overall.”
The Main Street Competition Coalition urged the FTC and DOJ to treat the congressional letters as a clear signal that enforcement against abusive buyer power is both legally justified and politically supported.
Read the full document here.