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California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

oag.ca.gov

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Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#21

Post by hiq »

sneak wrote: post #11
switz wrote: post #8

Taxes and fees should be mandated for all prices up front. This is how it works in most of the world, there's no good reason it shouldn't work that way here in the US. Someone will come along and point out an edge case, but for the vast majority of retail situations this is doable.

This obscures the tax burden from the end user, transparently blending it with the price of the goods and the merchant's profit. Consumers should be consciously aware of the split.

In Europe I still haven't seen a bill without the VAT clearly shown in the final bill. I've also seen shops showing the two prices, one without the VAT, one with. But if only one is shown, it should be the one I will pay.

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#23

Post by vore »

sneak wrote: post #11
switz wrote: post #8

Taxes and fees should be mandated for all prices up front. This is how it works in most of the world, there's no good reason it shouldn't work that way here in the US. Someone will come along and point out an edge case, but for the vast majority of retail situations this is doable.

This obscures the tax burden from the end user, transparently blending it with the price of the goods and the merchant's profit. Consumers should be consciously aware of the split.

As the average consumer, I would much rather see how much money I need to take out of my pocket on the sticker price rather than deeply considering what the tax burden of my jug of milk is.

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#24

Post by wpietri »

switz wrote: post #8

Taxes and fees should be mandated for all prices up front. This is how it works in most of the world, there's no good reason it shouldn't work that way here in the US. Someone will come along and point out an edge case, but for the vast majority of retail situations this is doable.

And it's better for businesses too! They get to compete on honest things like quality and cost, not BS like tricking you into weird fees.

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#25

Post by crote »

sneak wrote: post #11
switz wrote: post #8

Taxes and fees should be mandated for all prices up front. This is how it works in most of the world, there's no good reason it shouldn't work that way here in the US. Someone will come along and point out an edge case, but for the vast majority of retail situations this is doable.

This obscures the tax burden from the end user, transparently blending it with the price of the goods and the merchant's profit. Consumers should be consciously aware of the split.

So have them put both prices with and without taxes on the label if they want to. The total tax burden will be listed on the receipt anyways.

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#26

Post by lotsofpulp »

eclipticplane wrote: post #7
eganist wrote: post #5

Tons of industries affected by this, though hospitality comes to mind as being particularly egregious. "resort fees" you can't get out of where they tell you what you're "getting" for those fees, Airbnb service fees, cleaning fees, things that should all be spread across the nightly rate. The feds doing this for airfare was the best thing to happen for consumers shopping for flights. Ideally we would take it further…

Those resort fees are the absolute worst for corporate travel. E.g., the budget for a hotel might be $300/night so you get one for $290/night. Then they tack on a $45/night "resort fee" and suddenly you're getting yelled at by accounting for going over your budget. That is, if you even remember to expense it since they charge it to your incidental card ...

I have never been surprised by a resort fee. If I search on Hilton/Marriott/etc websites, the total price shown when making the reservation is always what I am asked to pay.

I believe the resort fee is listed separately so that the hotel owner can reduce the amount of royalties paid to the hotel brand, since they get a 10% to 15% cut of revenue for accommodation charges, but presumably not for things like resort fees and whatnot.

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#27

Post by grahar64 »

As a foreigner who lived in the USA for a few years, I always thought the US runs in hidden fees.

From tipping, to taxes not in the sale price, to insurances not being able to give a price for a procedure, to hotel fees… I could never actually guess how much anything would cost.

Either the wording of the law will have a ton of exclusions per industry.

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#28

Post by NegativeK »

wpietri wrote: post #20
eganist wrote: post #5

Tons of industries affected by this, though hospitality comes to mind as being particularly egregious. "resort fees" you can't get out of where they tell you what you're "getting" for those fees, Airbnb service fees, cleaning fees, things that should all be spread across the nightly rate. The feds doing this for airfare was the best thing to happen for consumers shopping for flights. Ideally we would take it further…

I agree with you on almost all of this, but I think the cleaning fee is different. It represents an actual cost for an actual activity. I think AirBnb should show initial totals with it included, so you're never surprised by it. But it shouldn't be rolled up into the nightly rate because it really is a one-off. As an example, right now I'm looking at doing an extended trip, on the order of 2-4 weeks. I just need one…

A company can throw whatever fees they want at me as long as it's in the up front cost.

Re: California AG and state senators introduce bill to ban hidden fees

#29

Post by iamdamian »

This is welcome news.

An egregious example of what they are (hopefully) aiming to stop: https://passingtime.substack.com/p/perfidious-pricing

Also, a 2021 story from the Times about how drip pricing is getting out of control: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/opinion/consumers-drip-pr...

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