EMERGENCY PRICE CONTROL ACT

Emergency Price Control Act (EPCA) was a federal law that created the Office of Price Administration (OPA) to fix maximum prices and rents for the duration of World War II (1939–1945). Passed by Congress in 1942, EPCA directed OPA's Price Administrator to establish prices that "in his judgment" were "generally fair and equitable" and would effectuate the purposes of the act. The Price Administrator was also required to consider the prices prevailing in a two-week period during the fall of 1941 when wartime inflation was imminent, and make adjustments for national fluctuations in the cost of production, distribution, and transportation. Persons aggrieved by the maximum prices set in their trade or industry were authorized to file a protest with the Price Administrator. A special tribunal called the Emergency Court of Appeals was given exclusive jurisdiction to hear challenges to Price Administrator rulings. Violators who sold their commodities in excess of the prices set by the OPA could be prosecuted in criminal court or sued in civil court. Violators, however, were typically dealt with lightly, as less than two-percent of prosecutions resulted in prison sentences, and the normal civil remedy was a court order forbidding further transgressions. Some enterprises were entirely exempt from price regulation under the EPCA, including newspapers, magazines, and other print media. In August of 1945 price controls were removed from petrol, fuel, oil, and processed foods. By the end of the year very few price limits remained. EPCA expired by its own terms on June 30, 1947. Before it expired the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality against complaints that it abridged the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the federal Constitution. Citing the language of the act, the Supreme Court said that EPCA was necessary to the effective prosecution of the war, as it helped stabilize the economy, protect persons with fixed incomes, prevent speculative increases in prices or rents, and eliminate profiteering, hoarding, and other disruptive market conditions.