Non-competition, banks and farms: five key elements of Biden’s decree

President BidenJoe BidenJohn Kerry to Visit Moscow Officials to Discuss ‘Global Climate Ambition’ Civil Rights Leaders Find Meeting with WH ‘Encouraging’ Amid Voting Rights Battle Pentagon Considering Locations to Send Afghan interpreters as Biden promises evacuations by end of July MOREThe executive competition decree targets sectors ranging from banking and airlines to technology and healthcare, declaring war on companies against anti-competitive practices.

It aims to encourage innovation and competition, and to stimulate the US economy, through dozens of provisions focused on consumers and workers.

Here are five key elements of the massive presidential decree.

Increases leverage for workers

Biden’s most notable move to empower workers is the ordinance banning or limiting non-compete agreements used by employers to prevent employees from moving to rival companies.

One in three businesses in the United States requires a worker to sign a non-competition clause, according to the White House.

Other provisions aimed at directly assisting workers and targeting certain business practices include prohibiting unnecessary license restrictions and cracking down on employers sharing worker data with each other.

Almost 30 percent of jobs in the United States require a license, according to the White House. Biden said during the executive order signing ceremony at the White House on Friday that these licensing requirements hamper military families.

“Listen, that can’t be a big burden to get a new license in a new state. That burden can no longer be there, ”Biden said.

Labor unions praised Biden for forcing companies to change their practices from non-competition to sharing wage data. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), the union of 1.3 million food and health care workers, welcomed the commitment “to create rules of the a level playing field for American workers ”.

The corporate sector pushed back the order. The Chamber of Commerce said this “seems like a” best-know “approach to managing the economy” and the National Association of Manufacturers said the actions “threatened to reverse our progress by undermining free markets.”

Tackles concentrated corporate power

The tech, healthcare, and agriculture sectors are targeted in that order, encouraging antitrust agencies to focus their enforcement efforts on responses to business consolidation.

It allows the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to “vigorously” enforce antitrust laws and challenge past mergers.

The order directs the FTC to also work on the issue of hospital consolidation, arguing that the practice can be harmful to patients. Ten healthcare systems control a quarter of the market, according to the White House, due to mergers.

To protect family farmers, he calls on the Ministry of Agriculture to put an end to the practices of meat processors that he considers abusive.

“The seed, equipment, feed and fertilizer markets are now dominated by a few large companies, which means family farmers and ranchers now have to pay more for these inputs,” the White House said in a statement. communicated.

Democrats in Congress have also focused on this issue. The Joint Economic Committee, chaired by Representative Don Beyer (D-Va.) Is holding a hearing next week on the rise and concentration of corporate market power and how this increased concentration is hurting consumers, workers and to small businesses.

Aim to lower drug prices

Biden’s decision to lower drug prices by allowing cheaper drugs to be imported from other countries was part of his healthcare plan during his presidential campaign.

Before Friday, the Biden administration would highlight Congressional efforts to reduce drug prices, which involves legislation allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prices.

The new executive order directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to work with states on importing prescription drugs from Canada and directs authorities to develop a plan to reduce drug prices in 45 days. Biden noted Friday that a “handful” of companies control the market for life-saving drugs.

“As a result, Americans pay two and a half times more for prescription drugs than in any other leading country,” he said.

The ordinance also enacts new rules so that hearing aids can be sold without a prescription. Hearing aids can cost thousands of dollars and cannot be sold in pharmacies.

“This is something the last administration was supposed to do but failed to do. We’re going to do it, ”Biden said.

Listening to consumers

The travel industry is making a comeback after its depression during the coronavirus pandemic and now the Biden administration is targeting certain practices that it says are harming consumers.

The order directs the transportation department to issue rules requiring consumers to be reimbursed for fees when baggage is delayed or when the airline does not provide service, such as if the plane’s WiFi is down.

It also gives the department the power to consider issuing new rules that would require baggage, change and cancellation charges to be clearly disclosed to the customer.

In the banking sector, the ordinance aims to help consumers change banks more easily. It requires banks to allow customers to bring their financial transaction data with them to a competitor.

The United States has lost 70% of its banks over the past two decades largely due to mergers and acquisitions, according to the White House. In addition, it is difficult to change banks because banks have made it difficult to transmit financial transition history data to a new bank.

The order is also intended to help people make more informed decisions about their diet. Orders the Department of Agriculture to issue new rules to define when meat can be labeled as a “product of the United States,” which the administration says may also be a boost for American farmers .

It would order the ministry to develop another labeling standard, which would allow consumers to know when purchasing products whether its producer is treating workers fairly.

Rediscover net neutrality

The Obama-era net neutrality rules could also be reinstated under this order. The president “encourages” the Federal Communications Commission to reinstate the rules, which prohibited Internet service providers from blocking and limiting content and charging for speed.

The rules were overturned by the Trump administration, sparking a series of court challenges and unsuccessful attempts by Congress to reinstate them.

Internet service providers are also targeted in that order. This prevents ISPs from making deals with landlords, so tenants are limited in their choices, in another effort to monitor consumers. More than 65 million Americans live in one place with a single broadband internet provider, Biden said on Friday.

The ordinance also clamps down on Big Tech’s efforts to buy from competitors, collect personal information, and certain competitive practices that impact small businesses.

“More tolerance for abusive actions by monopolies, more bad mergers that lead to massive layoffs, higher prices, fewer options for workers and consumers,” Biden said Friday.