Harris offers more detail on her price-gouging ban
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Vice President Harris at an event in Atlanta earlier this month. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris offered some clarity to what her anti-price gouging proposal means, in an 82-page economic policy paper that her 2024 campaign released Wednesday.
Why it matters: The Democratic presidential nominee had been vague on what her promised crackdown on price gouging would look like, leading to wild speculation about "communist" price controls.
- The document could dispel those notions and also mollify some critics who've blasted Harris for not being more detailed about her policy plans if elected.
Driving the news: The paper, titled "A New Way Forward for the Middle Class," says that Harris will "call on Congress to pass the first-ever federal ban on price gouging."
- "The bill will set rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can't unfairly exploit consumers during times of crisis to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries."
State of play: Most states have such laws, as the proposal points out.
- They're typically triggered by a state of emergency like a flood, wildfires, hurricane or, yes, a pandemic.
- The idea is to prevent companies from taking advantage of a spike in demand due to crisis conditions, like selling consumers $10 bottles of hand sanitizer or $200 snow shovels.
- These laws are fairly far removed from the price controls her detractors had speculated she was proposing.
Zoom in: "Vice President Harris and Governor Walz's proposal—like many of the laws already on the books in 37 states—will go after nefarious price gouging on essential goods during emergencies or times of crisis," per the paper.
- It describes how these laws work, and how they've been used, in Texas, North Carolina, New York and Florida.
- For example, such laws were used to crack down on motels jacking up prices during Hurricane Mathew, gas stations charging $10 per gallon during Hurricane Harvey, and other companies for unreasonable price hikes on eggs and baby formula.
What they're saying: Proponents argue that a federal law would make it easier to go after bigger operators sometimes outside the reach of the states. Critics say that the state laws are enough.
Go deeper: How price gouging bans really work
Editor's note: This story was updated with additional details from the policy paper.
