Antitrust is a Main Street Issue
The Main Street Competition Coalition (MSCC) is non-partisan coalition of independent businesses and agriculture producers fighting to restore competitive markets across the American economy. We speak for the Main Street economy, not dominant corporations who stifle competition with unchecked market power. And we’re just getting started.
**Join us May 14th in Washington, D.C. for our official launch event
Market power abuses go far beyond Big Tech.
Independent businesses across the economy face unchecked consolidation, exclusionary practices, and vertical integration that squeezes out competitors – yet most have nowhere to turn. Washington’s influence industry is dominated by the very interests making it harder for smaller businesses to compete. The MSCC exists to fill that gap: a permanent, nonpartisan platform giving Main Street businesses a vehicle to organize, advocate, and push for market fairness at every level of government.
We advocate fearlessly for independent businesses – naming names and calling out abuses – while providing organizational insulation so members can participate without fear of retaliation. Our cross-industry coalition is organizing advocacy and enforcement across food and agriculture, pharmacy and healthcare, retail and e-commerce, and legal reform. When grocers, pharmacists, farmers, and other Main Street businesses speak together, policymakers pay attention. Every business that joins strengthens the coalition for all.
Our Work.
A platform to support antitrust enforcement and reforms
We work with industries and businesses affected by abuses of market power to push for government solutions that restore a competitive marketplace to the US economy.
Advocacy Across Every Front
We engage directly with Congress, the FTC, the DOJ, state attorneys general, and state legislatures to push for stronger enforcement of the antitrust laws and development of new legal tools to address modern competitive harms.
We also beat back regulatory capture where and when it exists in government agencies.
Enforcement Action
The MSCC builds the bridge between the businesses harmed by market power abuses and the legal and political actors positioned to act on it. We work with antitrust attorneys to enable businesses to develop more effective enforcement strategies, assist in identifying and assembling evidence, and help to turbocharge pathways to antitrust enforcement.
By bringing legal practitioners together with organized groups of affected businesses, the MSCC helps lower the barriers that too often deter individual businesses from addressing competitive harms in court.
Cross-Industry Policy Platform
We are building a comprehensive policy platform across multiple sectors and issue areas, informed by the experience of our members and the expertise of leading antitrust practitioners and economists.
More details to come soon.
Support the Coalition
JOIN US
The Main Street Competition Coalition is open to trade associations, businesses, agriculture producers, legal practitioners, academics, and anyone committed to restoring competitive markets in America. We offer multiple levels of participation, from general membership to leadership roles. To inquire further, please contact us.
Stay in the Fight
Fill out this form to register your interest in joining or participating in the Main Street Competition Coalition.
Members
Coalition Resources
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June 13, 2024
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April 30, 2024
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Sept 14, 2023
Read the full letter
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March 30, 2022
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October 28, 2021
News and Research
Atlanta Fed: Geospatial Heterogeneity in Inflation: A Market Concentration Story
November 6, 2025
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta research finds that lower-income communities face significantly higher food inflation — driven by greater retail market concentration and fewer competitors. From 2006–2020, poorer metro areas saw cumulative food inflation nearly 9 percentage points higher than wealthier ones. Read More
The Atlantic: The Great Grocery Squeeze
December 1, 2024
Food deserts aren’t inevitable - they’re a policy choice. Stacy Mitchell traces their rise directly to the abandonment of Robinson-Patman Act enforcement in the 1980s, which let dominant retailers extract preferential pricing and drive independent grocers out of business. Read More
The Federalist Society: Not Enforcing the Robinson-Patman Act is Lawless and Likely Harms Consumers
July 9, 2024
A conservative legal analysis argues that failing to enforce the Robinson-Patman Act is itself lawless — and likely harms consumers. The "waterbed effect" means discounts extracted by dominant buyers drive up prices for everyone else, especially in grocery markets.. Read More
WSJ: FTC Finds Large Grocers Used Size to Stock Shelves During Pandemic
March 21, 2024
Federal regulators said large grocery chains used their size and scale to keep shelves stocked during the pandemic, edging out smaller rivals when most stores struggled with product shortages and distribution bottlenecks. Read More
American Economic Journal: The Evolution of US Retail Concentration
January, 2025
Census data confirms retail concentration is rising at both the national and local level — and it's hitting consumers' wallets. Increasing local market concentration explains up to one-third of the rise in retail profit margins across the U.S. Read More
Can Robinson-Patman Enforcement Be Pro-Consumer?
May 20, 2024
Groundbreaking empirical research from Duke Law finds that discriminatory wholesaler pricing drives independent retailers out of business, reduced competition, and ultimately harms consumers - directly refuting longstanding claim that RPA enforcement protects small businesses at consumers’ expense. Read More
CNN: How a Depression-era law could be used to make your booze cheaper
June 7, 2024
Federal regulators are planning to use a rarely enforced law from the Great Depression to allege America’s largest alcohol distributor is unfairly pricing wine and spirits, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Read More
USDA: Promoting Fair Competition and Innovation in Seeds and Other Agriculture Input Industries
March 2023
USDA report finds decades of consolidation in the seed industry have reduced farmer choice, enabled dominant firms to impose restrictive licensing terms, and weakened competition — recommending stronger IP oversight, fair competition enforcement, and reinvestment in public plant breeding infrastructure. Read More
USDA: Competition and Fair Practices in Meat Merchandising
November 2024
USDA's interim investigation found that dominant retailers, food service distributors, and meatpackers use excessive fees, preferential pricing, and anticompetitive arrangements that squeeze out independent competitors across the meat supply chain. Read More
FTC Releases Second Interim Staff Report on Prescription Drug Middlemen
January 14, 2025
A unanimous FTC report found the three dominant pharmacy benefit managers marked up lifesaving specialty generic drugs by hundreds to thousands of percent, generating over $7.3 billion in excess revenue while steering profitable prescriptions away from independent pharmacies. Read More
The American Prospect: Walmart’s Monopolization Machine Revealed
December 15, 2025
The unsealed FTC complaint against PepsiCo reveals that Walmart coerces the beverage company to actively raise wholesale prices on Walmart's competitors to maintain a "price gap" — turning a supplier into an enforcer of Walmart's market power at the expense of independent and regional grocers and consumers. Read More