Industries line up to tear down proposal to rein in price-fixing
Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford this week said his proposed legislation to crack down on 'knowingly deceptive' price fixing would bolster consumer protections and that opposition from industry groups are relying on 'a bit of hyperbole' to attack it.
'If you're not being deceptive, if you're not being fraudulent, this bill would not apply to you,' Ford said. 'If you are using deceptive and fraudulent means to manipulate the price of necessities beyond those basic forces of supply and demand, this bill speaks directly to your activities.'
Assembly Bill 44, heard Wednesday at the Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor, expands the state's existing Unfair Trade Practice Act to include knowingly deceptive price fixing of essential goods and services.
The bill defines essential goods as those 'needed on a daily or recurring basis for the livelihood of a person,' including 'food, medicine and shelter.'
An amendment proposed prior to the hearing tweaked the definition to include 'food purchased for off-premises consumption, clothing and footwear, gasoline and other energy goods, pharmaceutical and other medical products, housing, household utilities, ground transportation, telecommunication services, and internet access.'
Ford told state lawmakers he was working on an additional amendment but didn't offer details of what it would include.
He said the efforts to crack down on price fixing came from concerns about the increased cost of housing.
Landlords and property owners have come under fire in recent years for using rent-fixing software to artificially raise the price of rents.
Real estate software companies, like RealPage, have been sued by several state attorneys general and the federal government in the last year. RealPage has denied wrongdoing in these cases. Nevada has not taken action against RealPage.
'We learned of rental prices being increased by virtue of some unfair and illegal price fixing tactics,' Ford said. 'We learned about that through not only complaints from our constituents but also from other attorneys general who are prosecuting agencies and entities that are engaging in that in their practice.'
The cost of living, the state's 'consistently high unemployment rate' and the potential of cuts to the federal social safety net programs such as Medicaid being considered by congressional Republicans are putting 'both the health and financial livelihoods of so many Nevadans at risk,' Ford said.
During times of financial stress, he added, it's easy for people to be exploited through deceptive practices including price fixing.
While the state does have a mechanism to go after some industries that engage in price fixing under the Nevada Unfair Trade Practice Act, he said the office was seeking more specific language to give them additional tools.
'This bill would fill current holes in statutes that have proven insufficient to stop these practices from occurring,' Ford said.
Multiple times during the hearing, Ford reiterated the bill wouldn't apply to businesses that have to increase prices because of inflation, supply chain disruptions or operational costs.
Still, many concerns around the bill stemmed from how the legislation would affect small businesses.
Republican Assemblymember Melissa Hardy, a former small business owner, questioned how the bill would affect businesses that have to raise prices 'because our rent went way up, or our products increased substantially.'
Ford said the scenario described was a basic instance of supply and demand.
'The threshold question for this bill is whether there has been knowingly fraudulent activity,' he said.
Ford used the example of a small business owner raising prices because the commercial space they occupy raised the rent. If the property owner colluded with other landlords or price-fixing algorithms to raise the rent for the small business owner, Ford said, the landlord 'might fall within the bill' but 'raising your prices because of your rent increase would not.'
The Vegas Chamber, Retail Association of Nevada, T-Mobile, AT&T, Nevada Realtors and the Nevada State Apartment Association were among the many industry groups opposed to the bill.
They labeled the legislation as overly broad, 'government price control' and government 'overreach.' One went as far as saying efforts to prevent deceptive price fixing would 'impose rent control.'
'The manipulation of price prevention, while it mentions fraudulent or deceptive conduct, will make normal, everyday market activities legally suspect,' said Miranda Hoover, a lobbyist with the Energy & Convenience Association of Nevada. The bill would mean 'raising prices for any reason could bring legal action and result in liability.'
Ford called their statements hyperbolic.
'We are talking about engaging in knowingly and deceptive conduct,' he said. 'That's the threshold. We don't get to the question about how much the price has increased … This bill does not cap in any kind of way how much someone can charge for something as long as they aren't knowingly, fraudulently or deceptively engaging in conduct. You can charge what you want to charge.'
He reminded lawmakers that some of the same groups against his bill also opposed efforts to restrict price gouging during a state of emergency.
AB 44 also includes price fixing by utilities, but the legislation exempts utilities that are already regulated by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada. Several Democratic lawmakers questioned the strength of the provision and whether all the state's utilities would essentially be exempt under this provision.
'I can't think of any that are not already regulated,' Democratic Assemblymember Elaine Marzola said.
Ford said telecommunications providers, like AT&T and T-Mobile, were deregulated in the state. It is 'not beyond the pale of imagination that an entity that right now is regulated may no longer be regulated,' he added.
The Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers was the lone organization to testify in support of the bill.
'This is about scammers trying to fleece Nevadans,' said Jonathan Norman, the coalition's advocacy, outreach and policy director. 'When I think of the consumers we see, the people coming into our offices, they almost uniformly, no matter the issue, had economic harm happen to them. We appreciate any bill that stands up for those consumers'
The committee took no action on the bill.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

CNN
21 minutes ago
- CNN
Japan's minority government likely to lose upper house control, exit polls show
Japan's ruling coalition is likely to lose its majority in the upper house, exit polls showed after Sunday's election, potentially heralding political turmoil as a tariff deadline with the United States looms. While the ballot does not directly determine whether Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's shaky minority government falls, it heaps pressure on the embattled leader who also lost control of the more powerful lower house in October. Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and coalition partner Komeito needed 50 seats to retain control of the 248-seat upper chamber in an election where half the seats were up for grabs. They are forecast to secure 32 to 51 seats, the exit poll by public broadcaster NHK showed. Other broadcasters forecast the ruling coalition would hold 41-43 seats. If the coalition holds less than 46 seats, it would mark its worst result since the coalition was formed in 1999. That comes on top of its worst showing in 15 years in October's lower house election, a vote which has left Ishiba's administration vulnerable to no-confidence motions and calls from within his own party for leadership change. Opposition parties advocating for tax cuts and tougher immigration policies look set to make gains, the exit polls showed, with rising consumer prices – particularly a jump in the cost of the staple rice – a key issue for voters. 'The LDP was largely playing defense in this election, being on the wrong side of a key voter issue,' said David Boling, a director at consulting firm Eurasia Group. 'Polls show that most households want a cut to the consumption tax to address inflation, something that the LDP opposes. Opposition parties seized on it and hammered that message home.' The LDP have been urging for fiscal restraint, with one eye on a very jittery government bond market, as investors worry about Japan's ability to refinance the world's largest debt pile. Adding to the anxiety around the world's fourth largest economy, Japan faces a deadline of August 1 to strike a trade deal with the United States or face punishing tariffs in its largest export market. The populist Sanseito party looked to be one of the big winners on the night, forecast to win 10-15 seats in the chamber, up from just one held previously. Sanseito's 'Japanese First' campaign and warnings about a 'silent invasion' of foreigners, have dragged once-fringe political rhetoric into the mainstream. 'I am attending graduate school but there are no Japanese around me. All of them are foreigners,' said Yu Nagai, a 25-year-old student who voted for Sanseito earlier on Sunday. 'When I look at the way compensation and money are spent on foreigners, I think that Japanese people are a bit disrespected,' Nagai said after casting his ballot at a polling station in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward.


Los Angeles Times
22 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Forget the high road: Newsom takes the fight to Trump and allies on social media
SACRAMENTO — In a common insult the Trump administration uses against dissidents of federal policy, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called a California judge a 'communist' after she blocked roving immigration arrests based on race alone. The MAGA-embraced epithet from Gov. Gavin Newsom's official press office in response, however, was hardly typical for a Democratic politician. 'This fascist cuck in DC continues his assault on democracy and the Constitution, and his attempt to replace the sovereignty of the people with autocracy,' the California governor's office posted on social media. 'Sorry the Constitution hurt your feelings, Stephen. Cry harder.' Popular among the far right and the gutters of social media, the term is used to insult liberals as weak and is also short for 'cuckold,' which refers to the husband of an unfaithful wife. The low blow sanctioned by a potential 2028 presidential candidate set a new paradigm for the political left that has long embraced Michelle Obama's 'when they go low, we go high' motto to rise above the callousness of Trump and his acolytes. It's also an example of Newsom's more aggressive social media strategy. This week the governor posted memes of Trump with child molester and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Shortly after the Department of Homeland Security detained and handcuffed U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla at a news conference in June, state Assemblymember Joe Patterson (R-Rockland) alleged on X that he would be treated the same way if he interrupted an event held by the governor. 'I'd politely ask you to leave,' retorted Newsom's communications director, Izzy Gardon. 'Though you do not deserve politeness in this moment for this grotesque tweet, you bald little man.' (Patterson later added 'Bald little man' to his profile on the social media site.) The governor and his taxpayer-supported press office joked that HBO had cast Miller as Lord Voldemort — the pasty, hairless super villain in the 'Harry Potter' stories — and mocked the scandal-plagued Texas attorney general after he accused Newsom of fomenting lawlessness. The governor defended the more combative posture at a recent news conference. He noted that Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, had used the word last month when he called Newsom 'the biggest cuck in politics.' 'I don't think they understand any other kind of language, so I have no apologies for standing tall and firm and pushing back against their cruelty,' Newsom said. Newsom's advisors say the governor reached a turning point after the president sent California National Guard troops into Los Angeles to protect federal agents from clashes with protesters during immigration sweeps. Since Trump took office in January, the Democratic leader had been walking a fine line between calling out the president and playing nice in hopes of being able to work together after the California wildfires. The governor said publicly said that the decision to militarize Los Angeles showed him that you can't work with the president, only for him. With federal troops on the ground, his aides said, Newsom also wanted to stand up for California, concerned about what would happen if he didn't. The directive was to match the tactics emanating from the White House and meet Trump and his allies where they are. Forget the high road. Over the last month, they've taken on more fights with Newsom's critics, reacted more quickly to shoot down misinformation about the governor or California, challenged narratives they find to be untrue, or unfair, and taken many of their own shots. 'Sometimes the best way to challenge a bully is to punch them in the metaphorical face,' said Bob Salladay, Newsom's top communications advisor. 'These tactics may seem extreme to some and they are, but there's a significant difference here: We're targeting powerful forces that are ripping apart this country, using their own words and tactics. Trump and Stephen Miller are attacking the powerless like every fascist bully before them.' Newsom's aides say the strategy is working. The governor's personal social media accounts gained 2.3 million new followers, including over 1 million each on TikTok and Instagram, and more than 883 million views from June 6 to July 6, according to his tallies. Podcasters and social media influencers, such as Fred Wellman and Brian Tyler Cohen, boosted the interest with their own posts about the governor. On TikTok in particular, there's a growing ecosystem of people who make videos about his videos. Newsom's official state accounts also experienced an exponential rise in followers and engagement in June. The attention bodes well for a politician considering a bid for president. His aides argue that the strategy benefits California by shutting down misinformation and helping people understand what's really going on. 'The thing that he does so well these days is that he responds rapidly, and he responds rapidly in a way that's very snackable to the average consumer of news,' said Karen North, a professor of digital social media at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. North pointed to the adage that 'it takes a minute to say a sound bite, but an hour to explain why it is false.' Republicans have been considered masters of sound bites for decades, and Democrats are often criticized for trying to explain the details of policies when people just want to hear the bottom line. Newsom is breaking that mold, she said. 'He has emerged as the person willing and able to take on the president, but in some ways, they use the same playbook of quick, engaging responses that are easy for people to understand without any analysis,' North said. 'Newsom has the advantage of playing defense as an offense. So when the president says something that is problematic to California or problematic to everyday citizens, Gavin Newsom is laser-focused and ready to strike back without any hesitation, and in a way that's very simple and very engaging.' In some ways, the governor learned the hard way after Trump used his platforms to label Newsom as 'incompetent' and blame him for the Los Angeles wildfires in January. The president made a barrage of claims at news conferences and on the social media site Truth Social about dry reservoirs, the need to transfer more water from Northern to Southern California, a lack of forest management and empty fire hydrants that went viral, leaving Newsom on the back foot defending himself. When Trump sent the National Guard into Los Angeles, the governor almost immediately went on the attack to counter the president's claims that he deployed troops to control lawlessness that Newsom had allowed. The governor's office said his June 10 speech, which framed Trump as unnecessarily invading an American city for his own political gain, received 41 million views. Although Newsom's aggression has received praise from some Democrats, it's also a 'a massive pivot from being a Bannon bro,' said Eric Jaye, a former senior advisor to Newsom turned critic who opposed his 2018 gubernatorial bid. Jaye is referring to the 'This is Gavin Newsom' podcast, where the governor flummoxed Democrats who thought he appeared too chummy with Trump campaign architect Steve Bannon, conservative personality Charlie Kirk and others close to the president. Newsom billed the show as an opportunity to speak to people with other viewpoints and he delivered on that premise. The governor also received criticism from within his own party for not forcefully challenging the perspectives that directly contradicted Democratic values, such as opposition to abortion rights, and agreeing with Kirk that it's unfair for transgender athletes to compete in women's sports. Jaye credited Newsom with 'a very quick turnaround,' which 'saved himself.' But now, with his amped-up social media presence, Newsom runs the risk of offending voters who miss respectful political discourse. Trump's derogatory nicknames for his opponents, such as calling Newsom 'Newscum' or Elizabeth Warren 'Pocahontas,' have not appeared to cause the president much political harm. He embraced 'lock her up' chants about Hillary Clinton in 2016 and constantly mocked Joe Biden before the former president dropped out of the 2024 presidential contest. Trump still won both races. North said Trump also has the benefit of saying things that appear 'passionate and reckless,' but people don't believe he's going to follow through. As a potential presidential contender, the question is whether Newsom can use words such as 'cuck' and say he wants to change laws to redistrict California to benefit Democrats in the midterm elections without worrying people and seeming too Trump-like to be palatable to voters who detest the president's antics. 'It has to be disturbing to a lot of people if the new era of politics involves hostile personal attacks,' North said. Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.


Politico
23 minutes ago
- Politico
How the 2017 Trump tax cuts made the ‘big, beautiful bill' so expensive
Congressional Republicans really like the 2017 Trump tax cuts. It's why the 'big, beautiful bill' costs so much. The decision to either extend those cuts or make them permanent before their year-end expiration date was the driving force behind the original, $2.4 trillion price tag of the House-passed megabill. Then the Senate GOP went even further, deepening the financial impact of the vast domestic policy package. That exacerbated the string of intraparty fights that consumed Republicans for weeks. Even as different factions squared off over issues such as slashing Medicaid — hundreds of billions here, tens of billions there — the extension of the 2017 tax cuts had already set the table. In the end, the Senate added another $1 trillion to the price tag. Detailed final estimates from Congress' scorekeeper haven't yet been released, but the overall picture is clear: The cost of President Donald Trump's signature tax and spending legislation was inflated by the desire to extend the tax cuts from his first administration. Other political fights shifted the price tag from there, but there was not much the staunchest deficit hawks could do but chip away at the margins. 'This was going to be a fiscal challenge from the start, because of how expensive it is to extend [the 2017 cuts],' said Andrew Lautz, director of tax policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center. Here's how the bill's cost ballooned, starting with its initial cost: $2.4 trillion added to the federal deficit over 10 years.