Chamber members have paid $154B in fines since 2000, watchdog group says in fight over FTC's powers
Companies belonging to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce paid more than $154 billion in penalties for violations of federal, state and local laws since 2000, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen says in a report it's issuing amid a tug of war over Washington's regulatory powers.
The watchdog group says the analysis, released Monday, calls into question the motives of the nation’s largest business lobby in criticizing a proposed regulatory crackdown by the Federal Trade Commission. The Chamber has accused the FTC of “waging war on American business.”
In a response late Sunday, the Chamber called the allegations "patently false," arguing that the FTC's "regulatory overreach" is threatening economic recovery from the pandemic.
The report: The Chamber doesn’t identify its membership. But Public Citizen said it found that 111 companies that self-identify as Chamber members violated state and federal laws nearly 16,000 times over the past two decades.
More than half of the amount comes from big banks, which have paid about $81 billion in penalties related to 485 legal violations, the group said. Another $20 billion in penalties relate to environmental misdeeds. Corporations such as the major oil companies recorded more than 1,600 violations with $8.9 billion in penalties, Public Citizen said.
The biggest companies have gotten used to leniency and act with a degree of impunity, said Public Citizen’s Rick Claypool, who compiled the report. “We should take what the Chamber is saying with a heap of salt,” he said. “Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook, they are all Chamber members. On whose behalf is this outrage really?”
Chamber vs. FTC: The Chamber sent three letters to the FTC in November accusing the agency under Chair Lina Khan of an “abuse of power” for using votes by a departed commissioner to advance policy changes, alleging White House influence on the FTC’s decision-making and criticizing the commission’s use of public letters to “shame” companies accused of wrongdoing.
The group has said it is considering suing the agency for denying its requests for public records related to several policy changes and intends to invest significant resources in monitoring what it sees as the FTC’s agenda against big business.
On Sunday, the Chamber rejected any implication that its outrage is motivated by years of bad behavior by its member companies.
“This wild allegation is patently false," Chamber spokesperson Tim Doyle said. "The Chamber’s strong objections are not about the FTC’s past enforcement actions, they are about Chair Khan charting a radical departure from the agency’s core mission. The FTC’s rogue actions and regulatory overreach concerns a wide swath of our members and only serves to accelerate uncertainty across the business community and threatens America’s fragile economic recovery.”
Congressional Republicans have also noted several of the issues raised by the Chamber. They have pledged vigorous investigation of the FTC should the GOP win back control of either house of Congress this fall.
The FTC has pledged not to back down despite the Chamber’s statements.
