States gain power to sue for price discrimination on behalf of consumers
S. 3548 — Fair Competition for Small Business Act of 2025 · Filed by Cory Booker (D-NJ) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 17, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Clayton Act to allow state attorneys general to sue on behalf of their citizens for damages when businesses engage in price discrimination under the Robinson-Patman Act. Currently, only the federal government and private parties can bring such suits; this expands enforcement to state officials acting as representatives of injured consumers and small businesses.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to expand the class of enforcers permitted to bring price-discrimination suits under existing antitrust law. It does not create new substantive rights or prohibitions, only adds a procedural avenue for state officials to vindicate existing ones.
What the text implies
- State AGs may use this authority to bring high-profile antitrust suits that generate political visibility, potentially creating incentives for aggressive enforcement regardless of economic merit.
- The bill does not specify a statute of limitations, damages cap, or standard of proof for state AG suits, leaving those questions to existing Clayton Act § 4C framework and state law.
- Expansion of parens patriae standing may increase litigation volume against businesses engaged in volume-based pricing, which could chill legitimate quantity discounts if state AGs interpret the Robinson-Patman Act broadly.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Expanding enforcement authority to state attorneys general creates an additional remedy for price discrimination, which typically harms small businesses and consumers. State-level enforcement may be faster and more responsive to local markets than federal action alone, and the parens patriae mechanism allows recovery without individual consumers having to sue.
Who stands to gain
- small businesses harmed by price discrimination
- consumers purchasing goods subject to discriminatory pricing
Named in the bill
Clayton Act, Robinson-Patman Act, Sherman Act, state attorneys general, parens patriae
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 6 Democrats.
- Dec 17, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Dec 17, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $405,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 24 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Cory Booker, the sponsor, reported $495,800 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Service Employees International Union Ctw-clc — $255,000 on 1 filing
- The Metrohealth System — $150,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 9, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (229 characters) on Sep 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,975 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 9, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-25.
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