Washington, D.C. — In response to news today that U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has signed Memoranda of Understanding with 18 bipartisan state attorneys general, which will allow states to investigate airline complaints for unfair and deceptive practices and ensure airlines must cooperate with state investigations, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“The simple fact is that Americans have fewer rights when interacting with airlines than with corporations in any other industry. This partnership with state AGs, which establishes a direct channel to fast-track complaints to the DOT, will go a long way toward addressing that problem and bringing much needed accountability to this issue,” said William J. McGee, Senior Fellow for Aviation & Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Secretary Buttigieg’s action is the first meaningful effort to address the deficiencies of federal preemption and level the scales for consumers against the airline lobby in more than 45 years. We urge other state AGs from both parties to sign onto this bipartisan effort.”

For the first time in decades, these MOUs will empower state attorneys general to crack down on airline consumer abuses, create a fast-track action system between the AGs and DOT, and allow shared access to the DOT’s passenger complaint database. Under the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, the federal preemption clause has prohibited states from having any oversight authority of the airline industry since then.

In 2022, AELP released model legislation to eliminate federal preemption, which we termed the “airlines’ liability shield,” and that same year, 38 state AGs wrote Congress requesting authority to address airline complaints. More recently, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced legislation to empower state AGs, but unfortunately that amendment is not included in the pending Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act. In recent years DOT has been overwhelmed by record numbers of consumer complaints, a problem that reached an acute state in 2020 when Colorado AG Phil Weiser publicly urged then-DOT Secretary Elaine Chao to act on unpaid airline refunds because his office had no authority. This new partnership between Secretary Buttigieg’s DOT and a bipartisan group of attorneys general will empower them both to hopefully ensure that consumer complaints are addressed in a timely fashion.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.