Companies are basically "snitching" on their competitors to the EPA just to get them hit with massive fines.
SSRN · March 13, 2026 · 6303359
Why it matters
Instead of just lobbying for lower regulations across the board, firms use existing laws as a competitive weapon. This study shows that firms act as volunteer informants for the government specifically when a rival's violation provides an opportunity to damage that rival's market position.
From the abstract
We study an important, but largely overlooked, non-market strategy used by firms in the enforcement stage of policy: "snitching", i.e. providing intelligence about potential violations of their rivals in an attempt to persuade regulators to fine them. Building on political marketplace theory, we develop and test a theoretical model of how firms use snitching during regulatory enforcement. We show that in equilibrium, firms snitch when the rival's violations are likely to cause significant harm t