Time for Some Accountability’: Advocate Says Democrats Must Subpoena Corporate

Yves here. While it is good news that the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees are taking interest in individualized price gouging by algo, it is a bit disappointing to see that Groundwork Collaborative, the authors of a report that documented this form of corporate rentierism, don’t seem to have a theory as to why these practices are contrary to current law, although they can clearly push for legislation to make it so..

I trust most readers know that airlines have been way out in front of this trend. They have long charged Apple device users more. If you look at flights on a certain city pair, don’t buy, and then look at that sort of flight in the next day or so, you’ll get a higher price, not because you passed a key window like 21 days before departure but to condition travelers that continuing to shop results in a steeper charge.

I am a bit surprised that no one has yet seen fit to go after retail outlets that price discriminate. Most jurisdictions have retail store licenses that require that product prices be posted and that goods must be sold at that price (as in no increase at checkout, the posted price must be honored). This old fashioned bricks and mortar concept can and should be extended to large swathes of the online world.

Class action litigation has been rising over the years but so too has corporate grifting as more and more companies, like credit card issuers, limiting customers to arbitration, which is advantagous to

Hopefully the lawyers and regulators in the readership can pipe up and add to the list of possible legal theories that could be used to contest these practices.

By Stephen Prager, a staff writer for Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams

After receiving a resounding mandate to act on America’s cost-of-living crisis, Democrats are considering bringing corporate executives before Congress in January.

The Washington Sun reported Thursday that House Democrats on the Judiciary and Oversight committees are examining a 181-page dossier created by Groundwork Collaborative, a consumer advocacy group that has chronicled “price gouging” by grocery chains and retailers like Walmart.

According to the Sun, the document singles out some of “the biggest tech giants, artificial intelligence labs, natural gas firms, private prisons and nursing home operators, among dozens of others,” including for their alleged roles in driving up prices for cash-strapped Americans in recent years.

Senior congressional Democrats have been studying a 181-page dossier that identifies hundreds of executives and companies for them to investigate after they take control of the House and Senate next year.
https://t.co/xNSqXgKyrD

— The Washington Sun (@washingtonsun) November 5, 2026

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is expected to take over as chair of the House Judiciary Committee in January, told the Sun that his staff had been examining potential investigations, but he remained vague about his plans.

“We’re not targeting particular corporations,” Raskin said. “We’re targeting systems and networks of corruption, and to the extent corporations are involved, they are subject to the oversight project of Congress and our subpoena authority like everyone else.”

Democrats steamrolled across the map in Tuesday’s midterms, with 48% of voters saying that the cost of living was the single most important issue motivating them, according to a pre-election survey by Reuters/Ipsos.

Lindsay Owens, Groundwork’s president and CEO, said that, to fulfill their campaign-trail promises to fight for “affordability,” Democratic lawmakers must relentlessly pursue accountability for corporate greed.

“Last night made it pretty clear: People are sick and tired of corporate America scheming its way to record profits while the rest of us get stuck with the bill,” she wrote on social media Wednesday. “Haul in corporate CEOs. Put them under oath. Make them answer for the rip-offs. Time for some accountability.”

In a Tuesday podcast appearance with Theo Von before the election, Owens said Democrats must zero in on what she has called corporate America’s “reinvention of the rip-off” over the past five years, which has involved increasingly targeted and sophisticated methods—including algorithmic price-fixing, junk fees, and subscription traps—to squeeze every possible cent out of consumers.

Last night made it pretty clear: people are sick and tired of corporate America scheming its way to record profits while the rest of us get stuck with the bill.

Haul in corporate CEOs. Put them under oath. Make them answer for the rip-offs.

Time for some accountability. https://t.co/BDhdaxymDv

— Lindsay Owens (@owenslindsay1) November 4, 2026

Rather than focusing solely on investigating President Donald Trump and his administration, Owens said Democrats also need to bring in “everyone from corporate America” and take them to task for their pricing tactics.

“Put the CEO of Walmart in the hot seat and [say], ‘Tell me what’s going on with Sparky,’” she said, referencing an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot the company launched last year. Executives have boasted during an earnings callthat consumers who use the shopping assistant spend an average of 40% more per order than those who do not.

She said the CEO of DoorDash should also be called to testify over its planned “agitation index,” which would have monitored users’ scrolling speed, jerky movements, battery level, and other variables to adjust what they see on the app. The company withdrew its patent application for the technology two days after Owens testified before the US Senate, warning it could be used to hike prices on hungry customers.

The CEO of Uber, she said, should also be brought in to explain why customers have been charged dramatically different fares for the same route using algorithms that the company has said are based on what a consumer is willing to pay.

Much of what has already been documented about these practices comes from publicly available sources, such as patent filings and “the stuff they’re stupid enough to say to their investors” on earnings calls, Owens said.

But with control of House and Senate committees, she said, Democrats will have the power to force companies to “turn over their books, their algorithm… all of the stuff that they don’t want us to see.”

She said, “That will require ticking off some companies and ticking off some lobbyists and doing business a little differently than Washington has done business in the past.”