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Sorry, you’re going to need a permit for that

PSU student Adam Sweet and his brother started a part-time moving business with their pickup truck. Soon business was flourishing, and they were successful enough to afford a real moving van. They christened their new, full-time outfit “2Brothers Moving Company.”

Imagine their surprise when the state fined them and towed their truck because they didn’t have a “Oregon Intrastate Certificate to Transport Household Goods or Passengers.” In the state of Oregon, all moving companies must be licensed. Now Sweet, with the help of the Pacifica Legal Foundation, is suing Oregon Attorney General Hardy Meyers, claiming the licensing system violates his 14th Amendment rights and provides “an unequal and unconstitutionally protectionist advantage to established moving companies who are able to limit their own prospective competition.”

Here’s what Sweet means by “protectionist advantage”: Even if 2Brothers had applied for the license, they probably wouldn’t have got it. The state notifies all other moving companies about a new application, and if they object, the application will be denied. According to the PLF, every company for the last two years that has applied for the license has been denied. This reminds me of something. What’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, right:

Cartel: a combination of independent commercial or industrial enterprises designed to limit competition or fix prices

Surely the fact that 2Brothers were significantly undercutting regular moving companies had nothing to do with the state bringing the hammer down on them. Here’s the case complaint, and there’s a video from the PLF after the jump, complete with sweet graphic representations of economic oppression.

Update: Crossposted over at Oregon Catalyst.

  1. […] reported last June on the ridiculous case of Adam Sweet, a PSU student who started a moving company only to be shut down by the state because he did not […]

  2. orwellduk says:

    Speaking of necessary permits the duckmafia legacy goose-egg project is facing a multidisciplinary quack attack this afternoon that is potentially sustainable. Oh I forgot you guys got that 12 pack of coors light and are off the arena story in trade. Did you at least save me one? It’s back to mac for the webfooted anarchists. boo hoo. Kilkenny the golf courses are waiting for you!

  3. Chris Holman says:

    Looks like a duck….walks like a duck….must be a duck.

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