WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - The Biden administration

on Tuesday launched an interagency effort to crack down on

inflated prices, limiting what banks can charge for late credit

card payments and reviewing the role of private equity in

healthcare deals.

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission

(FTC) are leading a joint "strike force" aimed at stopping

illegal corporate behavior that hikes prices on Americans

through anticompetitive or fraudulent business practices,

administration officials said.

Separately, the FTC, the Justice Department and the

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a joint

inquiry on the "impact of corporate greed in health care"

focusing on transactions involving private equity.

The inquiry seeks to understand how private equity deals

"may increase consolidation and generate profits for firms while

threatening patients' health, workers' safety, quality of care,

and affordable health care for patients and taxpayers."

The agencies issued a Request for Information (RFI)

requesting public comment on healthcare deals conducted by

health systems, private equity and other asset managers.

The administration will also finalize a rule that slashes

credit card fees from an average of $31 down to $8, and another

that gives ranchers and farmers more leverage when negotiating

contracts with meat-packers, officials said.

The moves to address rising costs come as Democratic

President Joe Biden and his allies try to change views among the

many American voters unhappy with his economic stewardship.

Biden is set to highlight the steps during the sixth meeting

of the Competition Council, which he created by executive order

to stop anticompetitive practices in sectors from agriculture to

drugs and labor.

Biden has successfully pressured companies such as Airbnb ( ABNB )

and Live Nation to limit junk fees - or extra

charges - that customers pay when booking concert tickets,

hotels and airfares.

The White House Council of Economic advisers estimates that

the administration's actions will eliminate more than $20

billion in junk fees annually. The moves to counter junk fees is

expected to feature in Biden's State of Union Speech on

Thursday, White House aides say.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit

Chopra said the limit on credit card late fees will save

American families $10 billion annually, or an average of $220

per year for the 45 million cardholders who are charged late

fees annually.

Credit card issuers have been exploiting a loophole created

in 2010 that allowed them to escape a federal ban on

unreasonable fees by increasing them each year with automatic

inflation adjustments, Chopra said.

The Department of Agriculture rule, first proposed last

September, prohibits among other things retaliation against

producers for activities like asserting rights under the Packers

and Stockyards Act, which aims to ensure competition in the

livestock, meat and poultry markets.

"This final rule will provide for clearer, more effective

standards by which to govern all of this in the modern

marketplace," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday.