The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday proposed a rule to ban any hidden and bogus junk fees, which can mask the total cost of concert tickets, hotel rooms and utility bills.
President Joe Biden has made the removal of these fees a priority of his administration. The Democrat’s effort has led to a legislative push and a spate of initiatives aimed at helping consumers. Administration officials have said these additional costs can inflate prices and waste people’s time.
“The proposed rule would prohibit corporations from running up the bills with hidden and bogus fees, requiring honest pricing and spurring firms to compete on honesty rather than deception,” FTC Chair Lina Kahn said on a call with reporters. “Violators will be subject to civil penalties and be required to pay back Americans that they tricked.”
The FTC proposal is being coupled with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announcing that it will block large banks from charging junk fees to provide basic customer services.
Regardless how sales tax is charged, the items can be priced to cover tax and sold at that price, tax included. Other parts of the world already do this, and it is the business that reports the numbers to the gummint and pays their tax bill. Profit margins can be optimised to fix the little sway in the sub-cent variance of percentages, and only a real penny pincher would care. You sell this much, you pay this much, every month. It’s how it works in the end.
And businesses already re-print/price their items frequently, sometimes on every purchase order received, which can be several times a week, because prices go up.