Justice Department and FTC urge states to investigate gasoline price gouging
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. and Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson wrote to state attorneys general on 3 July saying the agencies are “closely monitoring petroleum markets” for antitrust violations, and urged state enforcers to join in pursuing collusion or price manipulation. “Recent volatility in crude oil prices does not suspend either the antitrust laws or state consumer protection laws,” the letter said, arguing that “far too much” of the recent drop in crude prices “is being withheld from Americans when they pay for gasoline.”
The move follows President Trump’s order roughly a week earlier directing the Justice Department to examine possible gouging at the pump. Prices spiked after the U.S. entered the war against Iran and disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, then began easing; AAA put the national average near $3.82 a gallon.
The federal appeal to states reflects the limits of the mechanism. Most retail price-gouging statutes are state law, so federal antitrust authorities need cooperative state attorneys general to bring cases at the pump. Framing sticky retail prices as a possible antitrust matter also shifts attention from crude markets and refiners toward gas stations and distributors, where proving coordinated pricing is difficult.