WASHINGTON − The Biden administration is proposing a new rule to prohibit companies across the private sector from hiding fees from consumers, the president’s most sweeping action yet on “junk fees.”
The Federal Trade Commission’s rule would require all industries under its jurisdiction to show the full price upfront to consumers, including for concert and sports tickets, hotel rooms, and apartment and car rentals. Violators would be subject to financial penalties and be required to compensate customers.
President Joe Biden, in remarks Wednesday from the White House Rose Garden, called the proposal his administration’s “most comprehensive action ever” to eliminate junk fees.
“If these rules are finalized, they won’t just be voluntary, they’ll be made mandatory. It will do more than embarrass companies, it will make it mandatory,” Biden said.
The move comes as Biden has made tackling junk fees a top priority to help consumers. Americans collectively pay “tens of billions of dollars” in junk fees each year, according to the FTC. Lina Khan, chair of the FTC, likened the fees to “an invisible tax that quietly inflates prices across the economy.”
“Our proposed rule to ban junk fees would not just return money to people’s pockets but also restore a degree of justice to American families and restore fairness in our markets,” Khan said.
The rule will be subject to a public comments period before it can be formally adopted by the FTC.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged the…
