ILSR co-hosted a lively virtual briefing alongside 15 Small Business Rising (SBR) coalition partners to expose how large corporations are bullying suppliers into providing illegal pricing deals. More than 100 small businesses from across the country joined the live virtual briefing — featuring leading antimonopoly and small-business advocates — to galvanize small businesses to fight back and assert their rights, rather than accept price discrimination as the cost of doing business.
The briefing, How Big Retailers Get Illegal Pricing Deals and How to Fight Back, builds off years of ILSR and SBR advocacy calling on federal and state policymakers and enforcers to revive a critical law designed to protect fair competition: the Robinson-Patman Act (RPA). The law requires suppliers to offer the same pricing and terms to all retail buyers. This collective advocacy led to landmark enforcement actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under the leadership of former Chair Lina Khan. Unfortunately, some of these efforts have been slowed, or outright abandoned, under the current administration.
Stacy Mitchell, ILSR’s co-executive director, explained how price discrimination puts independent retailers at a significant disadvantage. Katie Van Dyke, an advocate and former federal antitrust enforcer, and Brianna Walker, Senate Judiciary Committee Counsel for U.S. Senator Cory Booker, outlined clear steps and strategies to reinvigorate price discrimination enforcement, including a preview of the soon-to-be-introduced Fair Competition for Small Business Act.
The briefing featured powerful testimony from Small Business Rising coalition partners with direct experience working with businesses in their communities. Thomas Barr from Local First Arizona shared real stories from Phoenix independent pharmacists battling powerful Pharmacy Benefit Managers. Jordan Amaker from Lowcountry Local First in Charleston, S.C., told of a local kitchen retailer struggling to compete with big-box prices because of unfair pricing tactics.
ILSR published a new fact sheet detailing what the RPA is and why restoring enforcement of the law is crucial to small businesses, consumers, and communities. You can check it out here.
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Watch a recording of the briefing
Briefing Cohosts:
The FTC's lawsuit against Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits, utilizing the Robinson-Patman Act, could be an opportunity to restore fairness to the American economy
"Consumers will feel the benefits through greater choice, lower prices, and vibrant neighborhood business districts," says Stacy Mitchell
The government's decision to stop enforcing the law in the 1980s fueled the collapse of Main Street. Now a revival is imminent.
How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert.