“To prohibit the use of algorithmic systems by food producers to artificially inflate the price or reduce the supply of their foods.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes definitions for terms used in the Act, including "(1) Chair" as the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC); "(2) Commission" as the FTC; "(3) consciously parallel pricing coordination" as a tacit agreement between two or more food producers to raise, lower, change, maintain, or manipulate pricing for reasonably interchangeable food products; "(4) coordinating function" as collecting, analyzing, or processing food producers' pricing or supply data (including to train algorithms) and recommending prices, supply, output, or other commercial terms; "(5) coordinator" as any person operating software or data analytics performing a coordinating function for food producers (including a food producer for its own benefit); "(6) food" as defined in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321); "(7) food producer" as any individual, corporation, or entity engaged in manufacturing, processing, or producing food products for commercial distribution; "(8) person" as defined in section 1 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12); "(9) pre-dispute arbitration agreement"; "(10) pre-dispute joint action waiver"; and "(11) State," which includes the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and U.S. territories or possessions.
This section declares unlawful, as per se violations of the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. 1 et seq.), (1) any contract, subscription, exchange of value, or other use by a food producer (or its agent or subcontractor) for the services of a coordinator; and (2) any facilitation by a coordinator of non-compete agreements among food producers on prices, supply, output, or other commercial terms.
This section establishes enforcement authority for violations of this Act. Specifically, it (1) directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce the Act using the powers of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.); (2) directs the Attorney General to enforce using powers under the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. 1 et seq.), Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12 et seq.), and Antitrust Civil Process Act (15 U.S.C. 1311 et seq.); (3) authorizes state attorneys general to enforce using Sherman and Clayton Act powers; (4) deems violations unfair methods of competition under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45); and (5) grants the FTC independent authority to bring civil actions for penalties and relief, with relaxed pleading standards for Sherman Act claims (i.e., factual allegations such as consciously parallel pricing suffice to plausibly allege a conspiracy, without excluding independent action). This section further authorizes private civil actions by aggrieved persons for treble damages, costs, attorney fees, and optional simple interest; and invalidates pre-dispute arbitration agreements or joint action waivers at the plaintiff's election.
This section provides a severability clause, stating that if any provision of the Act, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held unconstitutional, the remaining provisions and their applications remain unaffected.