More than 100 small businesses joined a virtual briefing hosted by Small Business Rising coalition members entitled “How Big Retailers Get Illegal Pricing Deals and How to Fight Back.”
Part educational session and part call-to-action, the briefing featured leading policy experts and small business advocates exposing tactics used by large corporations to bully suppliers into providing illegal pricing deals, and called for small business owners to share their stories.
Stacy Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance explained how price discrimination puts independent retailers at a significant disadvantage because they are not able to match the shelf prices of large competitors, followed by on-the-ground examples from coalition partners from Local First Arizona and Lowcountry Local First in Charleston, South Carolina. These business leaders shared the story of an Phoenix independent pharmacist battling powerful Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and a Charleston, SC home kitchen store competing with big box prices.
Katie Van Dyke with KVD Strategies and Brianna Walker, Senate Judiciary Committee Counsel for U.S. Senator Cory Booker, outlined regulatory, legislative, and legal strategies to reinvigorate price discrimination enforcement, including a preview of a soon to be introduced bill called the Fair Competition for Small Business Act.
The speakers urged small business owners on the call to fight back and assert their rights, rather than accept price discrimination as the cost of doing business. If you would like to share your story of price discrimination, please complete this Small Business Rising form and stay up to date with our advocacy updates in our monthly newsletter.