Reps. García, Tlaib Introduce Bill to Protect Consumers from Market Manipulation

Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, November 19, Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04) and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) introduced the Protecting Consumers from Market Manipulation Act, a bill to limit the revenue that large non-financial companies can derive from financial activity. The Protecting Consumers from Market Manipulation Act restricts big tech’s involvement in banking, and guards against banks’ ability to manipulate the price of commodities.

“As a community organizer and life-long advocate for working families, I have seen first-hand how the growth of monopolies, mega-corporations and big banks has exacerbated income inequality and threatened our nation’s economic stability. Many families are still feeling the effects of the 2008 economic crash in Chicago’s Little Village,” Rep. García said.

“Whenever we allow the line between banking and commerce to blur, working-class families suffer. Big banks like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley have already been caught manipulating everything  from electricity rates to oil and aluminum prices. Simultaneously, big tech companies like Facebook and Google are moving to the financial services sector where they currently evade existing banking regulations. Congress has a responsibility to protect working families and keep banking and commerce separate; that’s why I am introducing the Protecting Consumers from Market Manipulation Act and the Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act, which I introduced last month,” Rep. García continued.

“Time and again we have seen that big banks and big tech companies cannot be trusted to put people before profit,” Rep. Tlaib said. “Working-class families in my district are still struggling to recover from the 2008 recession caused by corporate greed and recklessness. By introducing the Market Manipulation Act, I hope to ensure that what progress we have been able to make is safeguarded from the threat of allowing an unchecked, unregulated blurring of lines between banking and commerce that has already resulted in examples of clear manipulation, discrimination, and privacy violations.”

A fact sheet about the Protecting Consumers from Market Manipulation Act can be found here.

The bill’s introduction comes one week after Google announced a new initiative to offer checking accounts to consumers and regulators opened an investigation into discrimination by Apple’s new credit card. The Protecting Consumers from Market Manipulation Act is part of a package of bills strengthening the separation between banking and commerce, which Rep. García announced on the 20th anniversary of landmark financial deregulation.

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