Citing skyrocketing fuel and consumer prices amid rising corporate profits, House Democrats held a hearing Wednesday on corporate price hikes that they say are worsening the inflation crisis.
Members of the House Democratic Policy Committee heard testimony about the impact that the consolidation of industries such as the energy sector, which is controlled by a few companies, has on Pennsylvania consumers.
They also highlighted three laws aimed at preventing monopolistic practices.
“The act of price gouging is an unpatriotic act and must be called out,” said Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski of Luzern.
The hearing followed a series of Republican Policy Committee hearings on inflation that focused on regulatory changes that would lower consumer prices and spur investment and economic growth in Pennsylvania.
The Stop the Price Fixing Actsponsored by Rep. Nick Pisciottano, D-Allegheny, would strengthen the authority of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office to investigate and prosecute price fixing. This would provide protection against retaliation and incentives for whistleblowers reporting anti-competitive activities.
The bill would also take into account court rulings that have, for several decades, placed a massive evidentiary burden on plaintiffs in lawsuits against companies accused of collusion, ordering courts to treat certain facts and actions as prima facie evidence of collusion.
The No more law on inflating gas pricessponsored by House Minority Leader Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, and Rep. Ryan Bizzarro, D-Erie, would prohibit gas stations from increasing prices more than once every 24 hours, as five other states have done to prevent excessive price hikes.
The Pennsylvania Open Markets Actco-sponsored by Rep. Sara Innamorato, D-Allegheny and Pisciottano, would modernize state antitrust laws by increasing the attorney general’s authority to investigate and prosecute violations.
The committee heard testimony from Lee Hepner, general counsel of the San Francisco-based American Economic Liberties Project, who said inflation is a grave problem for Pennsylvanians. He noted that a Suffolk University/USA Today Network poll found that the number of Pennsylvanians saying the economy is in bad shape rose to 45 percent, up from 12 percent in 2018.
Hepner said that while external factors such as the war in Ukraine are driving inflation, the problem is made worse by companies reporting record profits at the same time as commodity prices are rising.
Consolidation of major industries increases the potential for collusion because it is easier for a petite number of companies to agree to a price enhance and reduces the risk that a competitor will move against them, Hepner said.
The Stop Price Fixing Act addresses court decisions that have made existing antitrust laws nearly unenforceable by requiring victims of price fixing to provide highly detailed evidence before they have a chance to investigate and discover it.
On Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Austin Davis, D-Allegheny, urged lawmakers to support the legislative package, noting that widespread price increases have forced residents to make stressful decisions between imperative purchases and sent retirees back into the job market to make ends meet.
“I can tell you who doesn’t feel as stressed and that’s corporations,” said Davis, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.
