Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday acknowledged that corporate price gouging is not widespread, despite her campaign’s instance that it’s rampant and tackling it would bring down costs for Americans. 

Speaking at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Leadership Conference, Ms. Harris said it was critical for the administration to tackle “price gouging on behalf of corporations to lower the cost of groceries for Americans.” She accused companies of taking advantage of extreme weather emergencies or the COVID-19 pandemic to raise prices and pad profits.
 
“People are desperate because of these kinds of emergencies, desperate for support. And then some, you know, corporations — and it’s very few of them that do this — but then jack up prices to make it more difficult for desperate people to just get by,” she said.

Ms. Harris has made combating price gouging one of the tentpoles of her economic proposals, vowing to penalize companies “that exploit crises and break the rules.” 

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Last month, Ms. Harris proposed a federal ban on price gouging across the food industry. Her campaign has highlighted the surging cost of groceries, which has jumped 25% since January 2020. The campaign says the price increases come as some food companies enjoy record profits.

To stop price hikes, Ms. Harris has proposed the first-ever federal plan on price gouging for food and groceries. Details of the plan are limited, but it would likely resemble the price gouging bans in 37 states, which prohibit sudden spikes in prices for scarce goods. 

Groceries and the food industry at large have denied price gouging claims. They say rising prices stem from a number of factors, including higher labor costs that have trickled down to consumers and record-low cattle numbers that have driven up the cost of beef and steak.