Sen. Elizabeth Warren targets price gouging in new bill as tariff costs, inflation increase

CNBC

17-07-2025

With expectations that prices will rise throughout the economy over the summer as more tariffs stack up, a group of legislators on Capitol Hill highlighted by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is introducing a bill to target price gouging by the market's biggest companies.
The Price Gouging Bill of 2025 — introduced on Thursday by Warren along with Senator Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI ), and Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA) — would make price gouging illegal and give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the power to litigate alleged abuses of market power.
The proposed legislation comes just days after the June consumer price index showed a resurgence of inflation and as the tariffs toll continues to grow.
Warren says that in the past big corporations have taken advantage of market shocks, hiding behind factors like inflation and supply chain disruptions to raise prices excessively, but this time the culprit is President Trump's global trade war.
"Donald Trump's reckless tariff policies are giving companies cover to squeeze families and raise prices more than necessary. My bill is an opportunity for Congress to stand up for families by cracking down on price gouging and fighting back against corporate abuse," Warren said in a statement.
The text of the bill, as seen by CNBC, lists "abrupt trade policies" and "exceptional market shock" as factors to be considered in analysis of price increases.
A version of the bill introduced last year, The Price Gouging Prevention Act of 2024, did not specify trade policies. That legislation, sponsored by Warren along with former Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) was introduced in February 2024, but failed to pass. Senator Casey lost his Senate seat in the 2024 election to Republican David McCormick.
The price gouging bill would require companies with over $100 million in revenue to publicly report in Securities and Exchange Commission filings on any changes in pricing that exceed the average price in the past 120 days before the reporting period, and provide details on product costs and margins. Businesses with less than $100 million in revenue would be protected from price gouging litigation if they show legitimate cost increases.
The bill would allocate an additional $1 billion in funding to the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the price gouging law.
"The biggest corporations in our country jack up the cost of everyday household items, take in record profits, and give their executives huge bonuses – all on the backs of hard-working Wisconsin families," said Senator Baldwin in a statement. "Donald Trump claimed he would lower prices – so far, he has done just the opposite and is even opening the door to more price gouging. ... Our bill will finally crack down on corporate greed and help stop those big companies at the top of the food chain from sticking families with exorbitant costs," she stated.
In second-quarter earnings calls, companies from Costco to Best Buy and Newell Brands cited tariffs as a reason for price increases.
Rep. Deluzio said price increases are a result of "out-of-control" corporate power. "Prices are still too high, and inflation is still pounding folks," Deluzio said in a statement. "Especially now, we need to rein in monopolists and other huge corporations with the power to price-gouge the American people," he added.
The AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers both voice support for the bill and tell CNBC the bill is long overdue.
The price gouging policy has been criticized on both the right and left in recent history. During Kamala Harris's run for the presidency, Obama economic advisor Jason Furman told the New York Times that a plan to ban grocery story "price gouging" was not sound economics. "This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality," he told the Times. "There's no upside here, and there is some downside."
During a heated CNBC interview in August 2024 about the same Harris plan, Warren said three dozen states including Florida and Texas already have price gouging laws and have used them effectively. "Pricing gouging laws are not price controls. Price gouging laws are there to say sometimes that markets goes off the rails and when they do we need some ways to get them back on the rails. We need some curbs on that behavior," Warren said during a "Squawk Box" interview.
The issue has been a long-time focus for Warren, who along with former Senator Casey sent a letter to Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen questioning the grocer's rollout of electronic shelf labels, arguing the technology could make it easier to increase prices of high-demand items.
In separate price gouging accusation last November, Warren, along with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Agriculture on Sunday, calling on the agencies to investigate Albertsons and its subsidiaries Safeway and Vons for mislabeling items sold by weight, including produce, meat and baked goods and unlawfully charging customers prices higher than their lowest advertised or posted price.
A month before, Safeway, Albertsons, and Von paid nearly $4 million to resolve allegations of price-gouging and false weight advertising in California.
Co-sponsors of the new bill include Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). In the House, sponsors include Representatives Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Paul Tonko (D-N.).