Streaming platforms including Netflix, Paramount, and HBO Max are increasing subscription prices and decreasing the content available for consumers
While streaming companies squeezed American families with higher prices, executives reported a combined total of $170.2 million in compensation in 2023, a significant increase from the year prior
Read Casey’s latest greedflation spotlight “A Steady Stream of Price Hikes: How Streaming Services Put Profit Over Consumers” HERE
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Children & Families, released a study into streamflation—streaming platforms increasing the cost of subscriptions while decreasing the amount of content available to stream, implementing streaming restrictions, and introducing advertisements to a previously ad-free platform. “A Steady Stream of Price Hikes: How Streaming Services Put Profit Over Consumers” is a continuation of Senator Casey’s long-running investigation into greedflation and how corporations are using deceptive practices to squeeze working families’ budgets.
“From movies to music, greedy streaming services are ripping off hardworking American families with inflated subscription fees, limited account sharing, and added advertisements. Families sign up for a service, only to have the rug pulled out from under them when they learn they’ll have to pay more to stream less,” said Senator Casey. “I’m calling out greedflation when I see it and I’m fighting back against the corporations that put profits over people.”
Chairman Casey believes that no Pennsylvanian should be blindsided by increased monthly subscription charges or streaming platforms’ broken promises to never introduce advertising or restrict password sharing. While streaming services, executives, and shareholders are reporting millions in profits, American families are paying a hefty bill, only to turn on their TVs and find that their favorite shows are gone. In his report, Senator Casey exposes streaming services including Netflix, Spotify, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Hulu, and Max for fleecing Americans into expensive memberships to unreliable platforms. The spotlight also details how streaming services have abandoned their earlier promises to their subscribers, from shrinking content libraries to account restrictions.
Since November 2023, Chairman Casey has been investigating corporate price gouging and other actions by big corporations that have squeezed the budgets of American families and contributed to the increase in inflation. In February, the New York Times featured Senator Casey’s investigation into shrinkflation.
In November, Casey released the first report in his greedflation series, “Greedflation: How Corporations Are Making Record Profits on the Backs of American Families,” detailing how big corporations are using inflation as cover to raise prices and rake in record profits at the expense of middle-class American families and laying out Senator Casey’s vision to hold greedy corporations accountable. Corporate executives claim they’ve “earned the right” to raise prices and that their products “are worth paying a little bit more for.”
Ahead of Thanksgiving, Casey released his second report, “Stuffing Their Pockets: How Big Food and Agriculture Businesses Are Making Your Holiday Meals More Expensive," examining how the agribusiness companies that process Americans’ food have increased prices for everyday staple foods and raising questions about why those price increases are necessary, particularly during the holiday season. Some of these companies have a history of engaging in price-fixing, colluding to raise prices, anti-competitive conduct, and touting their ability to raise prices without limit. Seeking answers, Senator Casey sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and United States Department of Agriculture requesting that the agencies use all necessary resources to investigate possible unfair pricing practices of major chicken and pork processors in the United States. The Federal Trade Commission, in response, assured Senator Casey that policing potentially anticompetitive conduct in food industries continues to be a top priority for the Commission given the high stakes for American families, farmers, and the Nation’s economy.
In December 2023, Casey released his third report of his greedflation series, “Less Bang for Your Buck: Casey Releases Shrinkflation Report Exposing Big Corporations for Reducing Product Size While Keeping Prices High,” calling out household consumer products, food, and beverage corporations for reducing the size of household consumer goods, from toilet paper to cereals to snacks, while continuing to sell them at the same retail price. To better protect families’ pocketbooks, Senator Casey sent letters to the trade associations representing household consumer products, food, and beverage corporations demanding answers about pricing strategies, package size practices, and how shrinkflation affects customers.
In January 2024, Casey released the fourth report, “Additional Charges May Apply: How Big Corporations Use Hidden Fees to Nickel, Dime, and Deceive American Families” detailing how big corporations are tacking on excessive fees at the tail end of everyday purchases, from internet plans to ATM withdrawals. Senator Casey believes that no Pennsylvanian should be blindsided by a junk fee and that the negative impacts of hidden fees can be mitigated by: fighting deceptive practices that allow corporations to hide the fees they charge consumers; preventing corporations from deceptively passing along their expenses to working families through bogus fees; and protecting businesses that are honest about their pricing structures. In a letter to the Government Accountability Office that same month, Senator Casey pushed the government watchdog to examine the effects of corporate greed on American consumers.
In February 2024, Casey introduced legislation to protect American families from greedflation by banning grossly excessive price increases and crack down on corporate price gouging. The same month, Casey also introduced the Shrinkflation Prevention Act, which empowers the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to crack down on corporations that deceive consumers by selling smaller sizes of their products without lowering the prices.
Senator Casey sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra in April in support of the CFPB’s proposed rule to crack down on excessive overdraft banking penalties. Similarly, in February, Senator Casey sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan in support of FTC’s proposal to eliminate junk fees across the market. Chair Khan later joined Casey in Philadelphia to highlight their efforts to combat corporate greed.
In April, Casey released a greedflation spotlight, “The Pink Tax: How Companies Tack Extra Costs on Women in the Age of Greedflation,” which details how corporate greed has disproportionately harmed the budgets of women.
Read the full spotlight on “A Steady Stream of Price Hikes: How Streaming Services Put Profit Over Consumers” here.
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