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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

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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).

Fun fact: sales tax rates are not stable. Our state publishes quarterly tax changes at the county level; city-level changes are presumably too numerous for the state to publish in the same format.

Inclusive pricing can obviously be done in-store, but it also more or less ensures that some of the items in your store will have incorrect prices some of the time.

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

#382
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Move to Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire or Oregon. No sales tax.

most states have some trick. I think you have to look at it wholistically: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Median_h...

nitpick: "holistically"

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

#383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. I hate when website use IP for anything, especially language selection. I travel all the time as well as use VPNs for work, and the idea that my IP represents anything other than what network I’m connecting from is just lazy UX.

Yes let’s keep a shitty UX for most users because of a few abnormal users. Be honest, frequent travel and shopping over VPN is an edge case here. The vast majority of users are shopping and buying from home with a VPN. Or better yet, give municipalities an incentive to stop layering a kinds of taxes. Just have a VAT and be done with it.

> Or better yet, give municipalities an incentive to stop layering a kinds of taxes. Just have a VAT and be done with it.

Switching our tax regime to VATs, effectively flattening 13,000+ sales tax jurisdictions down to 50, would be a monumental undertaking involving rethinking and reorganizing financing of literally everything below the federal level. And in the end it would solve a problem that is at best a minor annoyance to most Americans.

The juice ain't worth the squeeze.

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

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree to both. And both are incredibly easy problems to solve. For the first just have a law that says: > Any advertised price must include all mandatory taxes and fees. No exceptions. For the second just have a law that says: > An end user must be allowed to use the same method to cancel as they used to sign up for the service. No exceptions. Additionally, an end user cannot be required to perform more manual action…

But what's a mandatory fee? Free airfare to Hawaii! Fee for paying by cash: $1000 Fee for paying by check: $1100 Fee for paying by credit card: $1050 Fee for middle seat: $200 Fee for window seat: $300 Fee for aisle seat: $250 Note that no fee on this list is mandatory because you always have other options.

So what happens when you buy that ticket and don't pay any of the fees? If you get taken to Hawaii then they're in the clear. If they won't take you without you paying the fee then I guess the fee wasn't optional after all.

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

#385
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

a reverse IP lookup should give you a good estimate and you can always ask the user to enter their address for more accurate price.

My home ISP has an exit point in a different city from where I live, so even without a VPN the IP lookup is only accurate to country level.

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

#386

I'd be interested to see whether a movie theater is considered an event. Our local one charges a convenience fee when buying online because ... they can? I wish they banned all mandatory add-ons. If I don't have the choice it should be part of the base price. The touristic railroad near me advertises a price, and then slaps on a mandatory Fuel Surcharge and Historic Preservation Fee. Excuse me? How can I compare what…

> How can I compare what I'm going to spend my money on if you're just allowed to lie to me? You're not supposed to, that's the point. It's frankly shocking (and also not, but you know) how much businesses in America are allowed to bullshit you. I signed on with a telco for high speed internet when we bought our house for $65 a month and by the time we got fiber and I could finally tell them to kick rocks, the bill h…

> You're not supposed to, that's the point. It's frankly shocking (and also not, but you know) how much businesses in America are allowed to bullshit you.

There's actually an administrative code in Washington that furniture (and maybe other) stores are only allowed to have a "Going out of business" sale _once a year_.

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

#387

Lina Khan is my second hero in life after Evariste Galois. Even if they throw her out it won’t change what she’s done: she put fear in the bellies of some truly terrible people who had almost forgot what the word “restraint” means. Ms Khan, I salute you.

Agree. Somewhat. But given that Elon Musk (who wants to shut down the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau completely) is likely to have a lot of say in these type of things, I think they'll forget that fear.

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

#388

Lina Khan is my second hero in life after Evariste Galois. Even if they throw her out it won’t change what she’s done: she put fear in the bellies of some truly terrible people who had almost forgot what the word “restraint” means. Ms Khan, I salute you.

Agree. Somewhat. But given that Elon Musk (who wants to shut down the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau completely) is likely to have a lot of say in these type of things, I think they'll forget that fear.

And the public will just accept arbitrary oppression with no limit?

No, the investor class will arrive at the negotiating table one way or another on a long enough timeline. It will be up to them if they still have legs to walk on.

The really scary fascists aren’t stupid: Thiel and those guys are buying bunkers in New Zealand as fast as the checks clear. They understand something that the American public lost sight of for a moment: the American Public is terrifying, the American public is slow to wake but arbitrarily brutal once roused. Pushing the American public into a corner has been the last mistake of a great many men better than Elon Musk.

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

#389

This shouldn't be controversial. FTC isn't banning these fees, it is only requiring merchants to disclose the fees. Why would anyone be against that? Another good rule is click-to-cancel. Just a couple of days ago I logged into my Dish Network account to cancel it (after they hiked prices). There is no way to cancel online. There is no way to cancel via chat. You have to call. As soon as you call you're told the wait…

Why is a law needed to address this? Isn't the market supposed to adjust for companies like this?

[deleted]

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

#390
post #78

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

As a pro-market fan, Khan is great. Pro-market: pro-market advocates for policies that enhance competition and market efficiency. Understands that god markets are made. Pro-market advocates believe in creating conditions where businesses can compete fairly without undue advantages from government favoritism. Government regulation can be essential to correct market failures and promote a level playing field. Free mark…

>Free market: and ideological stance where markets are without government intervention

no, markets without government intervention are called "laissez-faire" markets. There would be no need for that term if that's what free market meant.

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