antitrust
Dollar stores, giant grocery chains push healthy food out of reach for many, activists say
“Efficiency” is a frequent justification for allowing corporations to consolidate vast swathes of the marketplace. But when it comes to food, huge grocery chains and ubiquitous dollar stores are limiting some rural and urban communities’ access to healthy food at the same time they bankrupt the farmers who produce it, members of a virtual panel […]
Opioid-treatment maker settles with Ohio for $6 million
A maker of a common treatment for opioid addiction — Suboxone — has agreed to settle antitrust complaints by 41 state attorneys general for $102.5 million, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Friday. Ohio will get just under $6 million. The states claimed that Suboxone manufacturer Indivior made minor changes to its product to keep […]
Ohio AG files antitrust suit against Express Scripts, Humana, others
In a development that is likely shaking the world of health insurance, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Monday sued six corporate entities over the way they facilitate drug transactions. Yost filed the suit under the Valentine Act — Ohio’s antitrust law — accusing the companies of improperly colluding to fix prices and other actions […]
Consumer groups want antitrust probe of hospital suppliers
The middlemen who buy things like medical equipment for hospitals have vastly consolidated their control of the marketplace in recent decades, nine consumer groups are saying. Now the groups want the Federal Trade Commission to mount a formal investigation to see if the companies are stifling competition among medical suppliers, artificially raising costs and unnecessarily […]
Newest federal regulator wants the little guy to be the focus of antitrust enforcement
From groceries to prescriptions to paychecks, the modern American business landscape makes it increasingly difficult for poorer Americans to get what they need to survive, Alvaro Bedoya, the newest member of the Federal Trade Commission, said in an interview late last month. The consequences have taken the form of food and pharmacy "deserts" and in a paucity of jobs that pay a living wage. "I want to focus on the folks at the bottom of the ladder and are trying to move up and not fall off," he said.
Antitrust regulator takes aim at drug middlemen
The newest member of the Federal Trade Commission last week said that for decades his agency hasn’t served the historical mission of the agency — fairness. And in decrying the rise of megacorporations that dominate vast ranges of services in some economic sectors, he cited pharmacy middlemen as exhibit A. Alvaro Bedoya in May was […]
Biden administration announces “comprehensive” plan to fix high drug prices
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last week issued its plan to address high drug prices as part of President Joe Biden’s push to take on anticompetitive practices across the economy. But while it addressed in detail abusive practices by drugmakers, it was a lot more superficial about the practices of much-larger corporations […]