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FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices

cnbc.com

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Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices

#31

Post by munk-a »

nodesocket wrote: post #21
munk-a wrote: post #3

An excellent change. It's unfortunate that stewardship of the committee will soon change hands as Khan has been a great advocate for fair contracts between companies and consumers during her tenure.

[flagged]

Ignoring your last sentence - I'm well aware. These changes increase price transparency and that's something we all benefit from. Junk fees are a way to exploit psychology and ignorance to extract more money out of consumers than they'd like to pay.

I'm okay with things being expensive - I'd prefer if they weren't but that's the way to the world - I'm not okay with things being expensive and companies advertising them at a far lower price.

Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices

#32

Post by caseyohara »

legitster wrote: post #11

Seems like a no brainer. Can they tackle sales tax next?

Not likely; sales tax is extremely complicated in the US. There are 13,000 sales tax jurisdictions, and many of them have different and incompatible rules for things like sales tax nexus.

Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices

#33

Post by adra »

spockz wrote: post #15

Im all for this. I’m worried though that now the junk fees will just be added to the normal price without ultimately changing anything.

No, the reason they tack on the fee as a "tax" is literally to confuse and otherwise mislead the public to the true cost of the product they're buying, or mislead where the money is directed. they're buying from. If you believe in the Tennant's of capitalism at all, then you must have clear price representation.

Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices

#34

Post by delecti »

munk-a wrote: post #23
nirav72 wrote: post #14

Wonder if this going to be permanent or will be reverted as soon as the new FTC head is in office.

Time will tell - the change I'm really hoping will stick is the outlawing of non-competes without consideration.

I would not be hopeful. From AP news:

> Four of the FTC’s five commissioners voted to approve the rule. Commissioner Andrew Ferguson, – who is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to replace Khan, was the one dissenting vote.

https://apnews.com/article/ftc-junk-fees-rule-hotels-tickets...

Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices

#37

Post by jameskraus »

nodesocket wrote: post #21
munk-a wrote: post #3

An excellent change. It's unfortunate that stewardship of the committee will soon change hands as Khan has been a great advocate for fair contracts between companies and consumers during her tenure.

[flagged]

There's still a lot of benefit to seeing the prices up front vs. fees which are added on later. It can be a frustrating experience to realize that something you think is affordable is significantly more expensive once you make it to the checkout screen.

For example, I've been booking a group trip lately, and I found that the sticker prices for some things didn't include many fees, so it was more of a hassle to actually get accurate quotes. At the same time, the companies which were providing these prices have an incentive to hide fees, because that's what all their competitors are doing – they have pressure to be competitive both at first glance and at checkout.

With a level playing field, these fees should be incorporated into the total price across competitors, allowing for easier cross-shopping. I'm excited to be more confident I can quote what I see initially vs. going through a checkout flow.

Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices

#39

Post by ghaff »

drdec wrote: post #13
guidedlight wrote: post #10

They should ban hidden taxes too. The sticker price should be the final price.

Do you want to put in your shipping address to every website before you can shop?

Amazon in particular probably did a lot to normalize free (in country) shipping in many cases. But it's silly that there should be a sticker price that is the final price under all circumstances.

Mind you, I'm all for more up-front transparency in general, especially to the degree that comparison-shopping is inconsistent to the degree it displays or doesn't display often significant add-ons.

Re: FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices

#40

Post by WillPostForFood »

munk-a wrote: post #18
drdec wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you want to put in your shipping address to every website before you can shop?

Yea, that'd be pretty swell. The only reason websites moved away from that was to "lower friction" - it's better for the consumers who end up buying the product if they know availability and pricing up front.

The only reason websites moved away from that was to "lower friction"

It was never the norm that websites never asked for your shipping address or zipcode before allowing shopping. That's really silly.

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