Warren, DeLauro, Lawmakers Renew Push For FTC Action to Prevent Corporations From Using Trump’s Chaotic Tariffs as Cover to Price Gouge Americans

Federal Reserve “Beige Book” survey reveals businesses are taking advantage of Trump’s chaotic tariffs to price gouge consumers.
“This Administration’s reckless approach [to tariff policy] is spiking costs for small businesses and creating opportunities for billion-dollar companies to grow their profits and take advantage of consumers.”
Text of Letter (PDF)
Washington, D.C. –U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) led a letter to Andrew Ferguson, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), urging the agency to investigate tariff-enabled corporate price gouging that is raising costs for American families and use its full authority to prevent it.
The letter was also signed by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Representatives Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), James P. McGovern (D-Mass.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.).
The lawmakers previouslywroteto the FTC warning that large companies could take advantage of the Trump Administration’s chaotic tariff strategy to price gouge consumers. That letter noted that the on-again, off-again tariff confusion and uncertainty has created a cover for large corporations to raise prices on all goods, regardless of whether they are actually subject to new tariffs, and increase prices above and beyond what is necessary to cover any additional costs. Chair Ferguson did not respond to the lawmakers’ letter and has yet to take discernible action to prevent tariff-related price gouging, despite his own warning that President Trump’s tariffs “should not be interpreted as a green light for price fixing or any other unlawful behavior.”
In June 2025, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released newsurvey resultsshowing that “a significant share” of companies raised prices of goods and services that are not subject to tariffs, confirming that businesses were indeed “taking advantage of an escalating pricing environment to increase prices.”
Anecdotes from the Federal Reserve illustrate that tariff-enabled price gouging is already a significant and legitimate concern:
“This Administration’s reckless approach is spiking costs for small businesses and creating opportunities for billion-dollar companies to grow their profits and take advantage of consumers,”wrote the lawmakers. “The FTC should be utilizing its full authority to prevent these unfair practices.”
The lawmakers concluded the letter by urging the FTC to use its 6(b) authority to investigate any tariff-enabled price gouging and to issue a report on its findings.
As a champion for American consumers and a secure and healthy economy, Senator Warren has engaged in oversight of corporations for unfairly increasing prices for consumers:
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