Biden forms task force to tackle 'unfair and illegal pricing'

President Joe Biden is launching a joint Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission task force that will target "unfair and illegal pricing" that will hold corporations accountable when they "try to rip off Americans," a press release states. The task force will target things like credit card late fees and "junk" fees.

Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Rick Newman reports the details.

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Editor's note: This article was written by Stephanie Mikulich.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

RACHELLE AKUFFO: President Biden cracking down on what he calls unfair and illegal pricing from corporations with the launch of a new task force today, which will be led by the FTC and the Department of Justice. Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman joins us with those details. This new strike force, what do we know about it so far?

RICK NEWMAN: Yeah, Biden's been on this campaign for a while. I mean, he used to be calling it junk fees. And they've been trying to just tackle the annoyances that a lot of consumers, I mean, practically all of us are familiar with. So this is now seems to be going into overdrive. I mean, obviously, this is a campaign pitch for Biden. He wants Americans to know he's on their side.

So one of the things they're coming out of the gate saying they're going to go after is credit card late fees. There's a new rule now from the Biden administration that will cap credit card late fees at $8 per month. Those can sometimes run $25 or $30 per month. Now that is going to get a legal challenge.

And when Biden says some of these fees are illegal, I think it's going to be up to courts to figure that out. But Biden is I think just going to be banging this drum for the rest of the campaign, at least if they think this gets them-- some gets him some traction among voters. I mean, it sounds like something that ought to have populist appeal to voters.

But guys, the problem Biden keeps running into is he does things that actually benefit people and nobody notices. So how Biden's main challenge may be, I guess, two challenges. One, getting these through the courts and number two, getting people to notice that he's actually trying to do something on their side. At any rate, anybody who watches the State of the Union speech this coming Thursday is doubtless going to hear about this.

AKIKO FUJITA: OK, I was going to say we'll be looking for any additional details coming through from that State of the Union. Thanks so much for that, Rick.

RICK NEWMAN: Bye, guys.