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FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices

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

#201

Post by robotfelix »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #42
guidedlight wrote: post #10

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

I remember shopping in Japan. The price on the tag, is exactly what you pay (same with services, like hotels). Since this is Japan, it's a high price, but no surprises. Also, the service is amazing , and they won't accept tips. If you leave money on the table, they will chase after you, to give it back.

I'm not sure Japan is the best example here. My experience is that most shops have the price excluding consumption tax printed very prominently in large numbers, and then price including consumption tax is printed in much smaller writing underneath.

The price excluding tax is the only one you can read at a distance, that draws you in. As someone from the UK who is used to seeing price tags show the final price you pay at the till, I was constantly disappointed that items weren't quite such a bargain as I'd first hoped.

On the whole there are still many things that are much cheaper than in the UK though :)

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

#202

Post by olddustytrail »

Eisenstein wrote: post #73
sofixa wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The price on the tag, is exactly what you pay (same with services, like hotels). That's the norm, not the exception, in developed countries.

Except for the one with the largest economy.

Congratulations on living in a country where there are many people who are vastly richer than you.

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

#203

Post by emidln »

qeternity wrote: post #186
Symbiote wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the EU, the site guesses the location based on the IP, writes "Delivery to Denmark [Change?]" and shows prices with Danish VAT. If I'm signed in to the shop from making a previous purchase, they will use the location of the previous purchase.

Yes bc in the EU there is national VAT. In the US there is state and local sales tax. You can and will pay different sales tax between cities in a given state.

You can do this, albeit slightly less reliably, in the US as well. The geolocation isn't perfect, but you could easily put "With delivery to XXXXX [edit]" where XXXXX is a zip code you geolocate off an ip (or lookup in a user profile for a recurring user).

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

#204

Post by [deleted] »

websap wrote: post #200
mulmen wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So currently they correctly advertise the pre-tax price but since that’s not the correct total price your proposal is to display an approximate price which is also not the correct total price. I don’t see how this reduces ambiguity.

A higher price is more accurate than the pretax price

[deleted]

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

#205

Post by carlosjobim »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #69
BurningFrog wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a free market fan, Khan seems to have been pretty terrible. But this looks genuinely good! It's basically banning fraud. ---[EDIT], since everyone is asking for reasons here are two libertarian/conservative critiques: • https://reason.com/2024/11/07/good-riddance-lina-khan/ • https://archive.ph/IjNmZ

What do you mean? Minimising monopolies is how you keep the free market competitive.

Free competition should mean that you don't get punished for winning. There is no sport that punishes a competitor who is constantly winning, as long as they are competing fairly. Imagine Schwarzenegger being banned from Mr Olympia or Gretzky being banned for life from minor league ice hockey. So that the other competitors are given a fair chance of winning.

But every sport punishes competitors who are cheating or being unsportsmanlike. As it should be in the marketplace. But hackers and the EU and US bureaucrats think that being a leader in a market has to be punished for being a "monopoly". While always turning a blind eye to rampant fraud and scams that are in the marketplace everywhere online and offline.

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

#206

Post by ghaff »

trustinmenowpls wrote: post #111
crazygringo wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're talking about sales taxes, they can't until you input your shipping address. Because they depend on where you live. Nobody's trying to fool you by not including sales taxes. There's just no way to show them in advance, unless you want to start typing your address and zip code into every shopping website before you even browse.

Yup, I know what sales tax is in my state and can do the math in my head pretty easily to get the approx. amount. If you live in a state for any length of time you should be able to do this too. even if its something odd like 7.25% you can figure out what 10% is really quickly and know it'll be a little less than that.

I'm not sure who these presumably tech-adjacent folks are who can't look at a posted price, know something about the tax/tipping/etc. conventions are, and know about what the final bill will be.

That said, I DO agree that hidden facility/resort/etc. fees and the like should go. For years, there was a conference center restoration fee tacked onto hotels all over NYC even the project wasn't even approved. Rental cars at airports are also a nightmare. There is no reason for them.

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

#207

Post by cyberax »

bluGill wrote: post #129
cyberax wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A business already has to take care of the sales tax. So they can just show it on the price tag.

No they cannot. Taxes are not uniform. Walmart probably won't deal with this, but in many states business (read farmers) do not pay sales tax on some items (read likely to be used on a farm) and so stores that want to sell to business will have the ability to verify you are a business to give that discount. It is worse for online where until you log in they have no clue what taxes will apply. If you are buying a gift…

If you sell a widget in a store, you MUST be able to compute the sales tax. Otherwise, you can't sell it.

And if you can do that, then you might as well print it on the price tag (along with pre-tax price if you want). No buts.

Ditto for online, after you get the customer's ZIP code.

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

#208

Post by joshuaissac »

runako wrote: post #118
joshuaissac wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think legitster is suggesting that the sticker price on the product should be the price paid, rather than a uniform sales tax code. If the seller knows what to charge the buyer, then they know what they need to put on the sticker.

Local retailers would oppose this in very strong terms as a thumb on the scale in favor of online retailers. Online retailers would presumably still be able to show pricing before knowing a shipping address, so their pricing would be pre-tax. That would make the apparent price differential even greater, and on every item. I think this would make the marketplace less clear for consumers.

Online retailers could be required to use the best available estimate of the user's location to calculate the tax, like they do for ads.

So if they are logged in with an address on file, it could be that. If not, they could use geolocation, with a note that the tax is estimated. And let the user input a location in a box to show the exact tax.

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

#209

Post by fn-mote »

bluGill wrote: post #129
cyberax wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A business already has to take care of the sales tax. So they can just show it on the price tag.

No they cannot. Taxes are not uniform. Walmart probably won't deal with this, but in many states business (read farmers) do not pay sales tax on some items (read likely to be used on a farm) and so stores that want to sell to business will have the ability to verify you are a business to give that discount. It is worse for online where until you log in they have no clue what taxes will apply. If you are buying a gift…

The issue with online sales is real, but customers exempt from sales tax could just have their final price lowered. That would be the opposite of the current situation. Since there are many fewer tax-exempt sales, and tax-exempt buyers are presumably more sophisticated and less price-sensitive, this would be a net win for customers.

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

#210

Post by conductr »

guidedlight wrote: post #10

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

Hidden and not yet calculated are different things. They should just make a broad and sweeping stances on these hidden fees. The fact they play whack-a-mole from implementing this from industry to industry as the 'need' arises seems silly. If a price is advertised or quoted, it should be inclusive all the things with tax being the one exception.
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