John,

Finding good Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals? Have you loaded everything into your cart, applied your discount codes, only to find your total due is almost equal to what it would have been had you paid full price? That’s junk fees!

Junk fees are undisclosed fees that are added on towards the end of the purchasing process. They provide no real added value or service, and they’re everywhere―on airline and concert tickets, hotel bookings, and even rent payments.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), these fees cost U.S. consumers tens of billions of dollars a year. That’s money families could use to buy groceries, pay for health care, or get caught up on bills. Instead it’s going into the pockets of major corporations. But the Biden administration is looking to put a stop to it.

The Federal Trade Commission has introduced a rule that would hold corporations accountable:

The proposed rule would ban businesses from running up the bills with hidden and bogus fees, ensure consumers know exactly how much they are paying and what they are getting, and help spur companies to compete on offering the lowest price. Businesses would have to include all mandatory fees when telling consumers a price, making it easier for consumers to comparison shop for the lowest price.

Before this rule can go into effect, the FTC must hold an official comment period, and they need to hear from us. Submit an official comment in support of the rule to ban junk fees and help consumers save billions of dollars.

The implementation of this rule would be good for consumers and honest businesses alike as it would require unscrupulous businesses to divulge the full cost of their products up front and compete with other businesses on a level playing field. This will save consumers time and money when comparison shopping, searching for the best deal.

As President Biden said:¹

“Folks are... tired of being taken advantage of, and being played for suckers. These junk fees may not matter to the wealthy, but they sure matter to working folks in homes like the one I grew up in.”

We couldn’t agree more! CHN wrote about this in October², and now we all have a chance to do something to stop junk fees.

Submit a comment to the FTC today to hold greedy corporations accountable and eliminate junk fees.

Thank you for all you do,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ Biden proposes a ban on 'junk fees' — from concert tickets to hotel rooms
² CHN’s Voices for Human Needs: People Don’t Like to be Played for Suckers, and the Biden Administration is Doing Something About It