I read the whole thing, I think its a heck of a lot of political marketing fluff.

For example, even the CPI is not a good source of data - because its an index - and doesn't directly relate to the Human Consumer in a direct manner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySxHud7abko <-- As explained to Eddy Murphy in 1984

Take Juice at Walmart, which was $1.34 ~18 months ago - and it is now $2.16 today. And its not real 'Juice' - its Sugar Water

https://i.imgur.com/mPs35It.png

Minute maid is made by Coca-Cola, and subs to Louis-Dreyfus for a lot of its Juice mfr ops:

>As a subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company, Minute Maid's juice products are manufactured and distributed through Coca-Cola's extensive network. Here's an overview of the supply chain and manufacturing plants involved:
Manufacturing Plants:

Coca-Cola North America (CCNA) operates several juice manufacturing plants in the United States, including:
Atlanta, Georgia: CCNA's headquarters and a major juice manufacturing facility.
Houston, Texas: A large juice plant serving the southern United States.
Los Angeles, California: A juice plant serving the western United States.
Chicago, Illinois: A juice plant serving the midwestern United States.
Coca-Cola Refreshments (CCR) operates additional juice manufacturing plants in the United States, including:
Detroit, Michigan: A juice plant serving the midwestern United States.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: A juice plant serving the northeastern United States.

https://i.imgur.com/C2LCTal.png

The point being -- that this act is garbage when price gouging is baked into the entire Supply Chain - whereby Sugar is the True Evil Commodity.

(I met the Sugar Industry's primary Lobbyist on a plane to DC once -- and it was eye-popping on how unbelievably powerful Sugar is in Politics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanjul_family

https://www.promarket.org/2016/09/19/sugar-industry-buys-aca... <-- Story about their political ties, payments.

Now lets look at which congress members are impacted by sugar lobby, based on which committees they may be members of:

https://i.imgur.com/kDwed5Q.png

https://i.imgur.com/VYJK7iD.png

Then lets look at the top donors to those congress members are from the Sugar and sugar adjacent:

https://i.imgur.com/YX1ublY.png

And we can also see that publicly recorded investments are made into said companies:

https://i.imgur.com/13dvCEL.png

https://i.imgur.com/dYW49mc.png

In Summary:

This act will accomplish nothing but drive the Political Sentiment Needle

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Summary of the Act

The Act aims to prevent price gouging during exceptional market shocks, such as natural disasters or national emergencies. It defines key terms, including:

Critical trading partner: a person who can restrict access to inputs, customers, or partners, harming competition [1].
Exceptional market shock: a sudden change in the market due to various factors, including natural disasters, wars, or public health emergencies [2].
Unfair leverage: a person who has dominant market power, discriminates between trading partners, or engages in unfair practices [3].

Key Provisions

Prohibition on price gouging: selling or offering goods or services at grossly excessive prices during exceptional market shocks [4].
Affirmative defense: small businesses (less than $100 million in gross revenue) can defend against price gouging claims if they demonstrate increased costs not within their control [5].
Presumptive violations: a person is presumed to be price gouging if they have unfair leverage and increase prices excessively during an exceptional market shock [6].

References:
[1] SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. (2) Critical trading partner.
[2] SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. (3) Exceptional market shock.
[3] SEC. 3. PREVENTION OF PRICE GOUGING. (e) Unfair Leverage.
[4] SEC. 3. PREVENTION OF PRICE GOUGING. (a) In General.
[5] SEC. 3. PREVENTION OF PRICE GOUGING. (b) Affirmative Defense.
[6] SEC. 3. PREVENTION OF PRICE GOUGING. (c) Presumptive Violations.
[7] Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Consumer Price Index. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/cpi/

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