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President Biden will issue an executive order on Friday, telling Americans that companies in several industries have grown too big and too powerful, and that federal intervention is needed to bring competition back to the market in order to lower prices.
This represents a slight change for the Biden administration, which recently focused its antitrust attention on Big Tech. Last month, Biden appointed antitrust technology expert Lina Khan to chair the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which, along with the Department of Justice, is responsible for enforcing antitrust laws. The ordinance addresses several issues related to large tech companies and alleged anti-competitive behavior, calling for further scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions that some tech companies may pursue in order to pull their competitors out of the market. The new executive order also calls on the FTC to establish rules for collecting user data, which many large tech companies rely on for their revenue and which Congress has still failed to pass laws to regulate.
But it can be difficult to argue that antitrust law enforcement for Facebook and Google will do anything for consumer wallets, as these services are largely free – you basically pay for them with your data, which businesses do. use to do things like sell advertisements. And Amazon’s dominance over just about everything is due, in part, to its ability to make its prices lower than those of small businesses. People like to pay less for things, and lower prices have always been interpreted as good for the consumer. Essentially, that’s what antitrust laws are for: protecting consumers.
So now Biden is rolling out a comprehensive executive order that, among other things, explains how antitrust measures will save Americans money by promoting competition and lowering prices for everything from airfare to hearing aids. .
Here’s how the command, if fully implemented, can make things cheaper for you.
Air freight charges
Biden’s executive order directs the Department of Transportation (DOT) to enact rules requiring airlines to reimburse expenses, when services are not provided or are not provided adequately. For example, if you pay baggage charges and your baggage is delayed, those charges will be refunded. Or if an airplane’s wifi or the in-flight entertainment system is not working, the airline will issue some kind of refund on the ticket price.
The order also directs the DOT to issue rules that airlines must clearly disclose all baggage, change and cancellation charges to their customers.
Internet invoices
Americans have long been forced to pay what the few Internet service providers charge for these services, usually because they don’t have much of a choice: most people have one or two high-speed Internet options available to them, which gives them little incentive to charge them less. And the prices charged by these providers can vary and often come with hidden charges.
The order will ask the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to prevent Internet service providers from entering into agreements with landlords that restrict tenants to a single option for an Internet operator. In theory, this will promote competition and lower prices.
The Biden administration will also push the FCC to revive its “Broadband Nutrition Label” plan. This would require vendors to explain all of the different plans available to customers, all of the associated fees, all of the services that customers get, and all of the details of their final bill. These broadband nutrition labels were proposed in 2016, to be dropped by the Trump administration’s FCC.
Finally, Biden implores the FCC to restore net neutrality. Net neutrality, which was established by the Obama-era FCC and repealed by the Trump FCC, would prohibit operators from charging more to access certain sites or services. It does so by classifying the Internet service as a “Title II” common carrier, which would subject it to regulation like a public service.
The order ultimately tries to promote competition and transparency, and end fees designed to lock in customers.
Prescription drugs
Biden’s new order directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to work with states and tribal authorities to import drugs from Canada, where the same drugs are typically much cheaper than in the United States. Ideally, this would force drug companies to lower the prices they charge in the United States, or at least give Americans the option of paying less for imported drugs.
The order also directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support generic drugs that will provide Americans with cheaper options than brand-name equivalents, and to come up with a plan to fight rising prices in the 45 days.
Finally, he asks the FTC to ban ‘pay for delay’ – when pharmaceutical companies pay their competitors to delay the supply of cheaper generic versions of their drugs after their exclusive patents have expired. .
Hearing aids
Biden orders HHS to make rules allowing over-the-counter hearing aids to be sold, rather than forcing consumers to have an expensive (and probably unnecessary) consultation with a medical professional first – hardly a consultation health insurers will even cover it.
Repairs, from tractors to cell phones
The order calls on the FTC to expand the “right to remedy” rules. Farmers and iPhone owners have complained that their device and equipment makers have made it impossible or excessively difficult for anyone except these makers to make repairs, allowing manufacturers to set their own prices. repair without competition to lower these prices.
Products from virtually any store that is not Amazon
In what could be one of the more general parts of the order, the Biden administration is asking the FTC to establish rules that prevent “internet markets” from using their dominance to gain an advantage over small companies that must sell their goods through them. . For example, Amazon can see which products from another company are selling well, create its own versions of those products, and then display them more prominently. This could also apply to Apple, as its many developers have complained that its App Store is a monopoly and that Apple will see what its users want (music streaming services, for example), create its own version and push it. on the Apple device. the owners.
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