Fair Grocery Pricing Act

The "Fair Grocery Pricing Act" seeks to combat anti-competitive practices in the food industry by prohibiting the use of algorithmic systems to manipulate food prices or supply. It specifically targets "food producers" and "coordinators," defining a coordinating function as collecting, analyzing, and recommending food prices, supply levels, or other commercial terms to food producers. The bill also defines consciously parallel pricing coordination as a tacit agreement among food producers to manipulate pricing for reasonably interchangeable food products. Under this Act, it is unlawful for a food producer to subscribe to or use the services of a coordinator, deeming such action a per se violation of the Sherman Act . Furthermore, it is unlawful for a coordinator to facilitate agreements among food producers that restrict competition on prices, supply, or other commercial terms. Enforcement powers are granted to the Federal Trade Commission , the Attorney General , and State Attorneys General , with violations also constituting an unfair method of competition under the Federal Trade Commission Act. The bill also allows any aggrieved person to bring a civil action to recover threefold damages and litigation costs. Significantly, it invalidates pre-dispute arbitration agreements and pre-dispute joint action waivers at the plaintiff's election for claims under this Act. The legislation clarifies that it does not modify existing federal antitrust laws nor preempt any stronger State, Tribal, city, or local laws.