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President signs order to promote competition in U.S. economy

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President Joe Biden

(Reuters) — President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order Friday to promote more competition in the U.S. economy, urging agencies to crack down on anti-competitive practices in sectors from agriculture to drugs and labor.

If fully implemented, the effort will help lower Americans' internet costs, allow for airline baggage fee refunds for delayed luggage and cut some prescription drug prices, among many other steps.

Mr. Biden said the order “commits the federal government to full and aggressive enforcement of our antitrust laws.”

“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,” he said before signing the order.

The White House says the rate of new business formation has fallen by almost 50% since the 1970s as large businesses make it harder for Americans with good ideas to break into markets.

Mr. Biden's action goes after corporate monopolies across a broad swath of industries, and includes 72 initiatives he wants more than a dozen federal agencies to act on.

Antitrust agencies will be told to focus on labor, health care, technology and agriculture sectors as they address a laundry list of issues that have irritated consumers, and in the case of drug prices, has bankrupted some.

Lower wages caused by lack of competition are estimated to cost the median American household $5,000 per year, according to a White House fact sheet that cites research from the American Economic Liberties Project, an influential Washington-based anti-monopoly group.

The initiatives will no doubt kick off a series of fights with the affected industries.

The powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a statement saying the move “smacks of a 'government knows best' approach to managing the economy” 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.”

Among the administration's plans to open up the U.S. economy are new rules to mandate ending excessive internet contract termination fees, allow hearing aids to be sold, and end non-compete clauses for millions of workers and many occupational licensing requirements.

Mr. 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.

The administration also seeks to make it easier for customers to switch banks and take their transaction data with them, and restore net neutrality rules that require companies to treat all internet services equally.

The executive order will direct the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission to carefully review mergers, and to challenge prior deals that have closed.

It directs the FTC to issue rules to address competition concerns from Big Tech companies, Facebook, Apple, Alphabet's Google and Amazon, and limit “killer acquisitions” where large internet platforms acquire potential competitors.

On prescription drugs, it aims to lower prices for consumers by allowing importation of drugs from Canada, where they are cheaper. It also urges the Department of Health and Human Services to draw up a plan to fight high drug prices, and gouging.

The executive order also establishes a White House Competition Council, led by the Director of the National Economic Council and including many cabinet secretaries, to monitor progress on finalizing the initiatives in the order.