The Competitive Enterprise Institute believes the proper role for government is to provide consumers with accurate, unbiased guidance that informs consumer choice. But, whether it is the substances we prefer, how we entertain ourselves, what dietary habits we maintain, or how we pursue personal health, consumers ought to have the right to make decisions for themselves.
Consumer Freedom Issue Areas
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Blog
Congressional Review Act can cancel three bad appliance regs
The Congressional Review Act (CRA) is the easiest way for Congress to block some of the bad regulations enacted under the Biden administration. A resolution…
The Washington Times
Retail industry projects surge in post-Christmas regifting and returns
The Washington Times quoted CEI’s expert on regifting in the retail industry The problem is that regifting ‘can suggest a certain laziness on the part…

Blog
Consumers benefit from access to Buy Now, Pay Later options
In a rapidly evolving retail landscape, with more and more commerce moving online, there has been a rise of financial technology (or fintech) tools. These…
Search Posts
The Washington Post
FDA Promises to Move to Ban Menthol in Cigarettes, Flavored Cigars Within a Year
The Washington Post cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on menthol cigarettes: The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, warned that “banning…
Blog
A Menthol Cigarette Ban Would Perpetuate the Racist War on Drugs
In April the White House announced an apparently historic shift in the U.S. War on Drugs—away from strict prohibition to an approach emphasizing harm…
News Release
House-passed SAFE Banking Act Would End Federal Threat to Banks Dealing with Legal Cannabis Businesses
The House has passed a bill allowing banks to do business with cannabis companies, the SAFE Banking Act. While Senate action on the bill…
Blog
Can Biden End the Current War on Drugs without Starting a New One?
This president is not your Grandad’s Joe Biden. At least, that seems to be the message of a new White House plan on the…
News Release
FTC Nominee Khan’s Antitrust Views Will Have Negative Consequences for Consumers if Made Official Policy
Competitive Enterprise Institute experts reacted to today’s announcement the White House intends to nominate Lina Khan to be a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission,…
Tobacco Reporter
Mail Ban Forces Vape Shops Out of Business
Tobacco Reporter cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on e-cigarettes and a USPS mail ban: Writing in the National Review,…
News Release
CEI and FreedomWorks Foundation Intervene to Protect Faster Dishwashers and Consumer Choice
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and the FreedomWorks Foundation intervened today in lawsuits from eco-groups and their allies seeking to overturn a…
Fortune
It’s Time to Raise the Cost of Spreading Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories were a major driver behind the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building. They have also been a growing part of the…
Ricochet
AUDIO: Iain Murray Discusses Socialism on Action Line Podcast
Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow Iain Murray joins “Action Line” to discuss the reasons why socialism is not an effective method for reducing…
Blog
Vape Mail Ban Will Hurt Vulnerable Adults and Won’t Prevent Online Sales to Youth
The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted a brutal toll on businesses. But one industry that is not only surviving but thriving is the cigarette industry.
The Washington Times
Biden Figures Wage War On Trump’s High-Performance Dishwasher Rule
The Washington Times cites CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman on the Energy Department’s new high-performance dishwasher rule. Pushing back against the legal…
Marketplace
Spending, Relief Bill Phases Out Planet Warming Refrigerants
Marketplace cites Senior Fellow Ben Lieberman on refrigerants. This measure hits two sweet spots: the environment and jobs. A key reason it…
Op-Eds
Cannabis Legalization Clears One Hurdle, but Political Parties Must Compromise to Succeed
Last week, the House passed an historic bill to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level. Despite growing public and political support for such a measure,…
News Release
Energy Department Reforms #Neverneeded Regulations on Consumer Washers, Dryers, Showerheads
Today the U.S. Department of Energy issued a set of two new rules that, respectively, allow the sale of faster clothes washers and dryers…
Study
EPA Should Revise Its Assessment of Medical Supply Sterilant
The COVID-19 crisis is a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining critical medical supplies. Not only must policy makers ensure that the market is…
News Release
House Vote to End Cannabis Prohibition Complicated by Big Government Provisions
The House today passed legislation that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. CEI led a coalition supporting that provision of the bill. But CEI…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter Supporting MORE Act Provision to De-Schedule Cannabis
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader Hoyer, Leader McCarthy, and Whip Scalise: On behalf of the many of Americans whose views and values our organizations represent, we…
Blog
Americans have Grown more Centrist, So Should the Parties
This last election was not normal. Record voter turnout, different voting procedures, and polarizing candidates makes comparing this cycle to any other difficult. But looking…
Inside Sources
Drugs (Except Nicotine) Win on Election Day
Americans sent a clear message on Election Day that it is time to end the war on drugs. Every ballot measure to decriminalize or legalize…
Blog
Democrats More at Risk for Anti-E-Cigarette Stance
Millions of adult vapers across the country could determine the outcome of the election in battleground states. According to Gallup, about 8 percent of…
Wall Street Journal
A Rule for Cleaner Dishes
Wall Street Journal cites CEI’s General Counsel Sam Kazman on U.S. Department of Energy final rule on dishwashers. If a camel is a horse designed by…
Washington Examiner
Trump administration finalizes rule to create new class of dishwashers that wash and dry in an hour
Washington Examiner cites Competitive Enterprise Institute on U.S. Department of Energy’s final rule on dishwashers. The Energy Department acted in response to a petition filed…
Blog
How Could We Have Known: Prohibiting E-cigarettes Leads to Smuggling and Smoking
Anyone with a passing knowledge of American history is aware of the failures of prohibition. Both the now-repealed ban on alcohol and the ongoing “war…
Blog
How Could We Have Known: Prohibiting E-cigarettes Leads to Smuggling and Smoking
Anyone with a passing knowledge of American history is aware of the failures of prohibition. Both the now-repealed ban on alcohol and the ongoing “war…
News Release
Banning Common Refrigerant Would Impose Huge Costs on American Consumers and Businesses
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), joined by 19 free market groups, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opposing an amendment to the…
Blog
New Junk Food Ordinance: Another “Feel Good” California Law that Does No Good
California is a tough place to live. Ranked as the state with the nation’s worst quality of life, Californians have the biggest debt-to-income ratio, suffer…
Blog
Government Is Asking if We Want Faster and More Effective Appliances. Say Yes!
For more than 50 years, Americans have used washing machines to clean their clothes and dryers to dry them. Manufacturers built highly effective products that…
Study
The Double Standards of Cannabis and Nicotine
View Full Document as PDF Executive Summary The principal benefit of recreational cannabis, as the name implies, is recreation. Many who enjoy using…
The Washington Examiner
Government Alcohol Advice Should be Based on Evidence, Not Agendas
Should adults cut their alcohol consumption in half for health reasons? That’s what a federal government advisory committee is recommending. It matters because that recommendation…
Blog
FDA Rules on E-cigarette Makers Go into Effect Today, to the Detriment of Public Health
The world was simpler in 2009 when Congress enacted a law that gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to regulate tobacco. Back…
Blog
No Market Failure, No New Regulations
The U.S. Senate is about to consider federally regulating transportation network companies (TNCs) for the first time. But proof of market failure should always be…
Acton Institute
Thank God for single-use plastic bags
Thank God for single-use plastic bags Acton Institute cites Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini on environmental regulation and consumer freedom. The policy hardly affects one of its…
The American Spectator
Progressive Pests Try to Ban Pesticide Chlorpyrifos
The American Spectator cites Senior Fellow Angela Logomasini on CCCEH and pesticides. As Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Angela Logomasini has noted, CCCEH works with…
Blog
Anti-Nicotine Zealots Only Care about Science When it Says What They Want
Opponents of nicotine vapor products like to claim the scientific high ground. For years, they have asserted there isn’t enough evidence on the long-term risks…
Blog
How the U.S. Spreads Fake Vaping Fears, Part II
In a previous post, CEI's Michelle Minton described how, through the use of statistical hocus pocus, anti-vaping interest have exported vape panic around the world.
Blog
Trump’s Drug Price Control Orders Are Bound to Backfire
At a White House gathering last Friday, President Trump announced four new executive orders intended to restrict the ways pharmaceutical companies set the price of…
Blog
How the U.S. Spreads Fake Vaping Fears
The international health profession is rightly focused on the SARS-CoV-2 virus threat at the moment. Meanwhile, another multinational threat has insidiously spread: Alarmism about nicotine…
Blog
Perverse Psychology: How Anti-Vaping Campaigns Backfired
We have spent years and countless billions trying to deal with the supposed epidemic of youth vaping. It has only gotten worse. A new CEI…
News Release
Dr. Nancy Beck Will Bring Thoughtful Consideration of Science to Consumer Product Safety Commission
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will today hold a hearing to consider the nomination of Dr. Nancy Beck to be chair…
Study
Perverse Psychology
Cigarette smoking is a lethal habit that kills approximately half of those who sustain it over their lifetime. But, contrary to popular belief, the nicotine…
Blog
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Anti-Drug Warriors’ Crocodile Tears
There is a lot to say about the heinous killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and no shortage of opinions being offered. Many have…
Blog
Green Activists’ Unwarranted Attacks on CPSC Nominee Nancy Beck
Left-of-center environmental activists are at it again, maligning the reputation of one of President Trump’s nominees—with little regard for the truth. One of their latest…
News Release
Report: State, Local Governments Should Lift #NeverNeeded Plastics Regulations and Bans – Permanently
Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a report urging state and local governments to end bans and restrictions on single-use plastics, like shopping bags…
Study
Lift #NeverNeeded Plastics Regulations and Bans – Permanently
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, lawmakers have finally begun considering the unintended impacts of bans on single-use plastics, particularly the potential for disease transmission from…
The Washington Examiner
Kill the Never-Needed Regulations Slowing the Economic Recovery
Our attention is focused on a single, terrible story like we’ve rarely seen before, a story that commands such a level of attention because it…
Comment
CEI Comments on EPA Transparency Rule
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) strongly supports EPA’s effort to increase transparency in scientific research underlying agency rules and research. CEI detailed in a 2018…
Blog
Cocktails in Quarantine: How your State Governs Booze Buying during Lockdown
With all the other added stress created by the outbreak of COVID-19, most states have chosen to relax alcohol laws in a pragmatic bid to…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter in Opposition to Any Proposal to Impose “Buy American” Mandates on Medicines
Dear Secretary Mnuchin, Director Kudlow, Leader McConnell & Leader McCarthy: We write in opposition to any proposal to impose “Buy American” mandates on medicines.
Blog
The Man Who Fed the World, And the Film that Condemned Him for It
The first indication that PBS’s new documentary on agronomist Norman Borlaug will not be overly laudatory is its title. Anti-hunger activist Leon Hesser called his…
Reason
Federal Regulations Are Making the Grocery Store Supply Crunch Worse
Reason cites Senior Fellow Gregory Conko on FDA food regulations: “It’s not terribly unreasonable to have these sort of minimal safety rules remain…