Brown Introduces Bill to Crack Down On Corporations Shrinking Products Without Lowering Prices

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced the Shrinkflation Prevention Act to crack down on corporations that raise costs on Americans by reducing the size of their products without also lowering prices.

“Americans are forced to pay for corporate stock buybacks and executive bonuses every time they go to the grocery store. And corporations are always finding new ways to charge people more to increase their profits, like shrinking their product without shrinking their prices,” said Brown. “Our bill will crack down on this greedy practice and make sure families get every ounce they pay for.”

The Shrinkflation Prevention Act would:

• Direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to promulgate regulations to establish shrinkflation as an unfair or deceptive act of practice, prohibiting manufacturers from engaging in shrinkflation
• Authorize FTC to pursue civil actions against corporations who engage in shrinkflation
• Authorize state attorneys general to bring civil actions against corporations engaging in shrinkflation

Senator Brown is working to lower costs for Ohioans and take on corporate price gouging. He successfully led multi-decade efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies so that they can take on Big Pharma and lower prescription drug costs for Ohioans. He introduced the Stop Predatory Investing Act to crack down on big corporate investors that buy up local homes, driving up housing prices in Ohio, and he has pressed the Federal Reserve to cut rates, which would make mortgages more affordable for homebuyers. Brown also successfully enacted the first meaningful step in decades targeting corporate stock buybacks, creating a new buyback tax, and introduced the Stock Buyback Accountability Act, which would raise the tax on corporations that spend money on stock buybacks, encouraging them to invest in their workers or lower their prices instead. Last year, he introduced the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act to crack down on profiteering by Big Oil.

The bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

A one-pager on the Shrinkflation Prevention Act can be found HERE.

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