Three legislative initiatives underline the importance of fair market competition to achieving affordability for Coloradans

Denver, CO – Today, lawmakers, small business owners, and community activists gathered at the state Capitol to unveil a far-reaching effort to bring affordable goods and services to Coloradans by protecting small businesses from predatory practices. Too often, large companies gain an unfair competitive advantage at the expense of small businesses due to an absence of information or fair market competition. These practices not only increase costs for consumers, they also undermine the ability of small businesses to compete on a level playing field. Legislative leaders today described a comprehensive approach to addressing market distortions by requiring price transparency, protecting small businesses from discriminatory pricing practices, and ensuring that large businesses can’t use technology to push smaller businesses out of the market. Together, these bills reflect a new pro-competition approach to addressing the affordability crisis.

Lawmakers described efforts to prevent wholesalers from offering sweetheart deals to big retailers that are unrelated to costs or economies of scale, to require delivery apps to show in-store prices and delivery costs on their platforms, and to bar sophisticated retailers from using their unique technological capabilities to individualize prices and push smaller retailers out of the market. These bills would help to ensure that small and mid-size retailers and local, independent Colorado businesses can access fair wholesale pricing, engage transparently with their customers, and keep prices down.

“We don’t have the technology to cheat people. Nor do we want to,” said Mike Callicrate, rancher and owner of Ranch Foods Direct in Colorado Springs. “But when the big grocers use Big Data to individualize prices, we struggle to compete with that.”

“At our family-owned Italian restaurant, we rarely receive fair pricing from third-party distributors,” said Gloria, owner of Pomodoro Pizza Pasta and member of the East Colfax Community Collective. “Recently, a sales representative quoted us significantly inflated prices. When I questioned whether larger restaurants were paying the same rates, I was dismissed and told I could never prove it. Small business owners deserve transparency, respect, and fair treatment regardless of size”.

“These measures represent a critical step toward creating market conditions where businesses can thrive, innovate, and contribute to vibrant local economies,” said Doni Clemens, Acting Director of Good Business Colorado. “Fair market competition enables us to keep the doors of small businesses open, maintain quality jobs with competitive wages, and reinvest in Colorado communities. The data shows that when small businesses succeed, we hire locally, support community initiatives, and create the diverse, dynamic commercial landscapes that make Colorado neighborhoods desirable places to live and work.”

“The weight of inflation, tariffs, rising healthcare costs and broad economic uncertainty has many of Colorado’s small businesses struggling to make ends meet,” said Hunter Nelson, Colorado Director for Small Business Majority. “That’s why it’s more important now than ever that lawmakers ensure small firms can compete on a level playing field consisting of fair and transparent pricing, and that the largest corporations are prevented from pushing small businesses out of the market through technological advantages.”

“Monopoly power, price discrimination, and extractive intermediaries hammer small businesses,” said David Seligman, Executive Director at Towards Justice. “That hurts all Coloradans. But none of this is inevitable, and I’m thrilled to see small businesses, legislators, and working people banding together to take it on.”

“Large corporations have made a habit of using discriminatory pricing practices to push out and harm the Mainstreet businesses that form the background of our communities,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “We’re thrilled to see Colorado lawmakers take a strong stand to protect fair competition and honest businesses throughout the state.”