Thread by @matthewstoller

1. Want some fun news before the Monday inauguration that you won't have heard anywhere else? The antitrust enforcers (Lina Khan et al) went full Tony Montana on big business this week before Trump people took over. Here's just part of what they did.

2. The FTC filed a monopolization claim against agricultural machine maker John Deere for generating $6 billion by prohibiting farmers from being able to repair their own equipment, a suit which Wired magazine calls a “tipping point” for the right to repair movement.

3. They also released another report on pharmacy benefit managers, including that of UnitedHealth Group, showing that these companies inflated prices for specialty pharmaceuticals by more than $7 billion.

4. The FTC, along with along with Colorado AG @pweiser, sued corporate landlord Greystar, which owns 800,000 apartments, for misleading renters on junk fees.

@pweiser 5. The Consumer Financial Bureau sued Capital One for cheating consumers out of $2 billion by misleading consumers over savings accounts.

6. The CFPB forced Cash App purveyor Block with its weirdo owner Jack Dorsey to give $120 million in refunds for fostering fraud on its platform and then refusing to offer customer support to affected consumers.

7. The Antitrust Division filed a complaint against seven giant corporate landlords for rent-fixing, using the software and consulting firm RealPa

8. Honorary mention goes to @PeteButtigieg at the Department of Transportation for suing Southwest and fining Frontier for ‘chronically delayed flights.’

@PeteButtigieg 9. The FTC forced health care private equity powerhouse Welsh Carson to stop monopolization of the anesthesia market.

@PeteButtigieg 10. The CFPB sued Experian for refusing to give consumers a way to correct errors in credit reports.

@PeteButtigieg 11. The Antitrust Division sued $600 billion private equity titan KKR for systemically misleading the government on more than a dozen acquisitions.

@PeteButtigieg 12. More stuff keeps dropping.

@PeteButtigieg 13. FTC went after Pepsi and Walmart for conspiring to hike prices at smaller stores with illegal preferential pricing.

@PeteButtigieg 14. Left a roadmap for parties who are worried about consolidation in AI by big tech by revealing a host of interlinked relationships among Google, Amazon and Microsoft and Anthropic and OpenAI. ftc.gov/news-events/ne…

@PeteButtigieg 15. Not just Experian, but Equifax got nailed for screwing people in their consumer credit reporting.

https://x.com/chopracfpb/status/1880318122890260601

@PeteButtigieg 16. Say hello to my little friend.

https://x.com/chopracfpb/status/1880317278358790243

@PeteButtigieg 17. Debanking!

The CFPB proposed a rule to prohibit take-it-or-leave-it contracts from financial institutions that allow firms to de-bank users over how they express themselves or whether they seek redress for fraud. @SohrabAhmari unherd.com/newsroom/did-t…

18. Antitrust Division and FTC filed two amicus briefs with the FTC, one supporting Epic Games in its remedy against Google over app store monopolization, and the other supporting @ElonMusk in his antitrust claims against OpenAI, Microsoft, and Reid Hoffman.

ftc.gov/legal-library/…

ftc.gov/legal-library/…

@PeteButtigieg @SohrabAhmari @elonmusk There's more! It's important to realize each of these action took years of preparation, and are important changes to industry structure that help ordinary people. A small corner of Bidenworld worked hard for you, even if most of the administration did not. Let that be a lesson.

Oh wow didn’t see this one coming

For more… thebignewsletter.com/p/out-with-a-b…