Axios Criticized for Claiming Harris Policy Isn’t Price Controls After Labeling Similar Policies as Such

X users criticized a recent Axios article with a “Community Notes” fact-check this week after the outlet dismissed the idea that Vice President Kamala Harris’ “price gouging” policy proposal constitutes price controls. Readers pointed out that several other Axios articles— including one by the same author defending Harris’ proposals— had previously labeled similar policies in other countries as “price controls.”

“The same author called it ‘price controls’ when the UK proposed voluntary caps on grocery store profits,” a portion of the X Community Note stated on Tuesday.

Harris announced last week that, as president, she would impose a “federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries” to prevent “big corporations” from exploiting consumers.

The Axios headline for Emily Peck’s article— seen on X— read, “Don’t call it price controls: How price gouging bans really work.” Peck rejected the comparison of Harris’ policy to “Soviet-style price controls” and defended it as consistent with existing U.S. laws. Peck wrote, “If banning price gouging is communist, then the U.S. went Marxist long ago. Most of us live in states that already have bans in place,” although these laws only “prohibit companies from jacking up prices during emergencies.”

Peck speculated that Harris’ policy would be limited to emergencies, writing, “If a national price gouging ban is structured like these local bans, only triggered by emergencies and targeted to specific firms, it’s not clear it would make much of a dent.”

Critics on X engaged the “Community Notes” feature to highlight inconsistencies in Peck’s reporting. The note linked to Peck’s 2023 article that described similar UK policies as price controls, where she had written, “The U.K. is mulling voluntary price controls on essential food items, as the country grapples with sky-high inflation at the grocery store. Why it matters: Persistent inflation is changing the conversation around price controls. Once waved off as an affront to capitalism, they’re starting to look more appealing — especially to politicians who want to avoid headlines about people who can’t afford to eat.”

The fact-check also cited a 2022 Axios piece by Matt Phillips that described proposals to limit Russian oil profits as price controls, stating, “Price controls were largely abandoned after the ’70s, as both American and global policy shifted toward less government involvement in the economy.” Phillips added, “On Friday, finance ministers from the G-7 group of major economies pledged to put in place a plan aimed at limiting the amount of money Russia makes from oil sales, effectively forming a buyers cartel to try to cap prices of Russian crude.”