This Act prohibits sellers from price gouging on goods affected by tariffs for five years by limiting price increases to direct tariff-related costs, with specific enforcement provisions and reporting requirements managed by the FTC.
Rosa DeLauro
Representative
CT-3
The No GOUGE Act prohibits sellers from raising the price of "tariffed goods" by more than the direct costs resulting from a new or planned tariff for five years. This prevents companies from using tariffs as an excuse to charge unreasonably high prices, with specific rules for final goods, assembled products, and components. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is tasked with enforcement, while large companies face a presumption of violation following major tariff announcements. The bill also mandates annual reports from the FTC and other agencies detailing price changes and enforcement actions.
No GOUGE Act Blocks Price Hikes on Tariffed Goods for 5 Years, Exempts Businesses Under $100 Million Revenue
If you’ve ever seen the price of something jump the day a new tariff hits and thought, “Wait, did that tiny tax really justify a 20% price increase?” this bill is aimed squarely at that feeling. The No Gratuitous Overcharging for Ubiquitous Global Exports Act, or the No GOUGE Act, is designed to stop businesses from using new tariffs as an excuse to hike prices far beyond the actual cost increase.
This legislation focuses on "tariffed goods"—anything hit by a new or planned tariff after January 20, 2025. The core rule is simple: for five years after a tariff takes effect or is announced, no seller in the supply chain can charge an "unreasonably high price." What’s unreasonable? Any price increase that exceeds the direct cost of the tariff on that specific good or component. If a tariff adds $5 to the cost of a phone screen, the price of the phone can only go up by $5, plus any other costs the seller can prove weren't just a pretext for profit.
The Small Business Shield and the Big Business Spotlight
This bill sets up a clear dividing line based on company size. If your business’s ultimate parent company pulled in less than $100 million in gross U.S. goods sales last year, you are completely exempt from this price gouging ban. This is a huge win for small businesses, protecting them from the compliance nightmare of tracking every tariff-related cost change.
However, the rules get much tougher for the giants. If a company’s parent entity made over $1 billion in U.S. goods sales, they face a rebuttable presumption of guilt during a "tariff-related shock date"—a day when multiple tariffs hit or are announced. If a massive company raises its price on a tariffed good during one of these shock dates, the FTC automatically assumes they violated the law. The burden of proof then falls entirely on the company to provide "clear and convincing evidence" that the entire price increase was solely due to the tariff and not just opportunistic pricing.
The Real-World Friction in the Details
While consumers benefit from this protection, the bill creates significant regulatory complexity, especially for those billion-dollar companies. For instance, imagine a company that imports a component for $100. A new tariff adds $10 to that cost. If, simultaneously, global shipping costs or domestic labor expenses also increase by $5, the company might struggle to pass on that non-tariff $5 cost increase without running afoul of this law. The price limit is tied strictly to the tariff cost, potentially forcing large businesses to eat other legitimate, non-tariff-related inflation.
Enforcement falls to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is tasked with issuing regulations and setting up a consumer reporting system within 180 days. Crucially, the FTC is also given the power to define other characteristics of "unfair leverage" beyond the $1 billion revenue mark, which is a broad grant of regulatory authority. State attorneys general also get a piece of the action, allowing them to bring civil lawsuits to enforce the law, which could lead to a patchwork of state-level lawsuits alongside federal enforcement.
Finally, the bill mandates new transparency. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) must now jointly submit annual reports tracking price changes for goods sold by these $1 billion+ companies. The BLS even has to check if its current surveys are detailed enough to track these tariff-driven price shifts and, if not, develop new questions. This means more data on corporate pricing decisions will be available, giving the public and Congress a clearer view of who is profiting when trade policy changes.