A sweeping executive order was issued by the United States President Joe Biden on Friday aimed at fostering more competition in the country’s economy and urging agencies to take action against anti-competitive practices in a variety of sectors ranging from agriculture to drugs and labour.
The complete implementation of this anti-competitive action will help in lowering internet costs for Americans and allow customers to get airline baggage fee refunds for delay in getting luggage among others.
The agencies have been ordered to focus in the sectors of labour, healthcare, technology and agriculture and cater to a large list of issues that are an irritant for customers, while some customers have gone bankrupt because of the very high prices of drugs.
"No more tolerance of abusive actions by monopolies. No more bad mergers that lead to massive layoffs, higher prices and fewer options for workers and consumers alike," Biden said at a White House signing ceremony.
A number of areas where experts feel that the prices are too high, wages are tactically brought down or where new businesses are unable to compete were noted by the president in his address.
"Let me be very clear, capitalism without competition isn't capitalism, it's exploitation," Biden said.
Since the 1970s, there has been an almost 50 per cent drop in the rate of new business formation in eth US because Americans with good ideas find it harder to get themselves into a competitive market because of anti-competitive practices of large businesses, the White House says.
The new executive order will target and seek to set right corporate monopolies within a large number of industries and sectors and will include 72 initiatives that the president wants to be followed up more than a dozen federal agencies.
According to a White House fact sheet based on research results from the American Economic Liberties Project - an influential Washington-based anti-monopoly group, about $5,000 per year is the estimated cost that has to be incurred by the median American household because of lower than actual wages created because of a lack of competition.
Analysts expect to see a series of tussles with the affected industries being kicked off by the latest initiatives.
The move "smacks of a 'government knows best' approach to managing the economy", said the powerful US Chamber of Commerce in a statement about new executive order and pledged to "vigorously oppose calls for government-set prices, onerous and legally questionable rulemakings, efforts to treat innovative industries as public utilities, and the politicization of antitrust enforcement."
New regulations to bring an end to excessive internet contract termination fees, allowing over the counter sale of hearing aids and bring an end to non-compete clauses for millions of workers and many occupational licensing requirements are among the plans of the Biden administration.
Biden's order pushes the Agriculture Department to act to stop what the White House called "abusive practices of some meat processors," reacting to farmers and ranchers who sometimes say they face too few buyers for their animals.
New rules to act to competition concerns caused by Big Tech companies, Facebook, Apple, Alphabet's Google and Amazon, are to be created by the FTC under new executive order that will also limit "killer acquisitions" where potential competitors are acquired by large internet firms.
(Source:www.investing.com)
The complete implementation of this anti-competitive action will help in lowering internet costs for Americans and allow customers to get airline baggage fee refunds for delay in getting luggage among others.
The agencies have been ordered to focus in the sectors of labour, healthcare, technology and agriculture and cater to a large list of issues that are an irritant for customers, while some customers have gone bankrupt because of the very high prices of drugs.
"No more tolerance of abusive actions by monopolies. No more bad mergers that lead to massive layoffs, higher prices and fewer options for workers and consumers alike," Biden said at a White House signing ceremony.
A number of areas where experts feel that the prices are too high, wages are tactically brought down or where new businesses are unable to compete were noted by the president in his address.
"Let me be very clear, capitalism without competition isn't capitalism, it's exploitation," Biden said.
Since the 1970s, there has been an almost 50 per cent drop in the rate of new business formation in eth US because Americans with good ideas find it harder to get themselves into a competitive market because of anti-competitive practices of large businesses, the White House says.
The new executive order will target and seek to set right corporate monopolies within a large number of industries and sectors and will include 72 initiatives that the president wants to be followed up more than a dozen federal agencies.
According to a White House fact sheet based on research results from the American Economic Liberties Project - an influential Washington-based anti-monopoly group, about $5,000 per year is the estimated cost that has to be incurred by the median American household because of lower than actual wages created because of a lack of competition.
Analysts expect to see a series of tussles with the affected industries being kicked off by the latest initiatives.
The move "smacks of a 'government knows best' approach to managing the economy", said the powerful US Chamber of Commerce in a statement about new executive order and pledged to "vigorously oppose calls for government-set prices, onerous and legally questionable rulemakings, efforts to treat innovative industries as public utilities, and the politicization of antitrust enforcement."
New regulations to bring an end to excessive internet contract termination fees, allowing over the counter sale of hearing aids and bring an end to non-compete clauses for millions of workers and many occupational licensing requirements are among the plans of the Biden administration.
Biden's order pushes the Agriculture Department to act to stop what the White House called "abusive practices of some meat processors," reacting to farmers and ranchers who sometimes say they face too few buyers for their animals.
New rules to act to competition concerns caused by Big Tech companies, Facebook, Apple, Alphabet's Google and Amazon, are to be created by the FTC under new executive order that will also limit "killer acquisitions" where potential competitors are acquired by large internet firms.
(Source:www.investing.com)
