ECONOMY
White House Launches Task Force To Combat ‘Shrinkflation’
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A day after Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster decried shrinkflation for making his cookies smaller, the White House announced a new task force to combat corporate rip-offs.
Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller, the blue muppet posted Monday on X, formerly Twitter. Guess me going to have to eat double da cookies!
C is for consumers getting ripped off, the White House tweeted in response, referencing a classic Sesame Street segment that teaches children the alphabet. President Biden is calling on companies to put a stop to shrinkflation.
Shrinkflation is the practice of companies selling smaller products for the same price, shrinking the product to hide the actual price increase. Other lawmakers also responded to the criticism.
Big corporations shrink the size of their products without shrinking their prices, all to pay for CEO bonuses, Democratic Sen. Sherrof Brown tweeted. People in my state of Ohio are fed up — they should get all the cookie they pay for.
A report released in December by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families, under the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, revealed the extent of shrinkflation in the U.S., based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The report found that among many other products, snacks like Oreos and Doritos have become 26.4 percent more expensive since January 2019, and 9.8 percent of that price increase has been accomplished by giving families fewer chips and cookies for their dollar.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday launched the Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing, which will be jointly led by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. The task force will be co-chaired by FTC Chair Lina Khan and Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter.
The task force is directed to root out and stop illegal corporate behavior that hikes prices on American families through anti-competitive, unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent business practices, according to a statement from the White House. The task force will particularly focus on key sectors where corporations may be violating the law and keeping prices high, including prescription drugs and health care, food and grocery, housing, financial services, and more.
Over the last year supply chains have returned to normal and inflation has come down,” National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard said on a call with reporters. “Some corporations arent passing those savings on to consumers…President Biden is fed up with corporate practices that unfairly raise costs for consumers and hes taking action.”
Separately, the White House Competition Council will meet again on Tuesday and announce additional actions to promote competition and lower costs. Among them will be a new rule finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to end excessive credit card late fees. The group will also announce additional crackdowns on other junk fees, and a new rule from the Department of Agriculture to crack down on meat and poultry processing companies’ deceptive contracts and retaliatory practices that hurt smaller producers.
