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**OCTOBER 11, 2023**
On the Prospect website
* Ryan Cooper on Cooperative Finland
* Maureen Tkacik & Claire Kelloway on the Kroger-Albertsons merger
* Lee Harris: A U.S.-EU Green Steel Club
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Kuttner on TAP
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**** Biden's Latest Initiatives Against Junk
Fees
Why did it take so long for other presidents to appreciate the power of
these regulatory counterweights?
To take a tour of all the deceptive "junk fees" imposed on consumers by
an array of industries is to appreciate the insidious nature of
predatory capitalism that has become all too normal. Getting rid of junk
fees and saving consumers hundreds of billions of dollars has been a
Biden administration theme.
It's also very good politics, since it demonstrates how Democrats are
on the side of ordinary people, as well as demonstrating the need for
countervailing consumer regulation-and it smokes out Republican fake
"populism," since Republicans hate an activist state constraining
corporate abuses.
Today, the administration took junk-fee prohibition to a new level
,
with detailed initiatives by the Federal Trade Commission and the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. New FTC rules will require all
businesses to show all fees up front, as well as clear disclosure of
whether fees are refundable. This rule would apply to event tickets,
hotels, car rentals, apartment rentals, and more. Companies that failed
to comply would pay fines as well as customer refunds.
New rules by the CFPB will require all banks to provide information
requested by account holders free of charge. Another pending CFPB rule
will make it easier for customers to send and receive data from banks
and to switch banks. The CFPB announced research findings that its
previous pro-consumer rules limiting bank fees on bounced checks have
already saved consumers at least $2 billion.
All of these new rules are out for comment, and still need to be
finalized, and we can expect a massive industry lobbying campaign to
water them down. This kind of vivid pro-consumer activity is the Biden
administration at its best, and it is frankly class warfare pitting the
mass of citizens against rapacious and deceptive economic elites.
Today's announcement also enlisted the White House Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to help mobilize other
agencies of government to carry out the administration's
all-of-government competition agenda. In past administrations, Democrat
as well as Republican, OIRA has been used mainly to bottle up or weaken
regulations.
Last February, in a previous round of agency actions against junk fees,
including limits on credit card late fees, Biden announced legislative
plans for a comprehensive Junk Fee Prevention Act
that would, among other things, ban early termination fees. Since then,
much of what was proposed for legislation turns out to be within the
power of the FTC, CFPB, the Department of Transportation, and other
agencies under existing law.
Still, it would be useful to get a floor vote on an anti-junk fee bill
to put Republicans on the spot and give the issue added visibility. Such
a bill was introduced in March
by Sens. Blumenthal and Whitehouse, but has not come to the floor of
either house.
These orders are both a vivid demonstration of practical help to
ordinary people, and a teaching tool about the need for creative and
aggressive regulation against predatory opportunistic corporate
deceptions.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
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The Cooperative That Could
How S Group became Finland's most dominant retailer BY RYAN COOPER
The No Spin-Off Zone
The Kroger-Albertsons merger shows us why regulators need to permanently
divest the concept of, well, divesting. BY MAUREEN TKACIK & CLAIRE
KELLOWAY
U.S. and EU Struggle to Form Green Steel Club
The troubled transatlantic trade deal may expose the limits of
Washington's green 'friendshoring' agenda. BY LEE HARRIS
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