In a new effort to protect consumers from deceptive practices, the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) latest rule proposal seeks to eliminate hidden junk fees you may encounter when checking out.
The agency's rule proposal, also known as the Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, would require businesses to be more transparent and provide disclosures and more clarity on whether or not a sale is refundable. The FTC is seeking public comment on the rule proposal after revealing it collected 12,000 comments last November from various sources, including law enforcers, businesses, and individuals, on how these hidden fees have negatively impacted them.
"Many consumers describe them as annoying, injurious, invisible, and all too common," the FTC wrote in the blog post. "They could be talking about pernicious pests and, in some ways, junk fees — hidden or falsely advertised charges that some companies try to sneak past people to burrow their way into their wallets —bear a resemblance to their six-legged counterparts."
Hidden or deceptive fees can come in various transactions, such as overdraft charges from your bank or when booking a hotel room or a place on Airbnb, which tack on odd hidden fees as you check out. Tickets to go see a concert is another infamous example as Ticketmaster and Live Nation are currently under scrutiny following their disastrous handling of tickets for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, where bots purchased and scalped the tickets on third-party websites. The Biden Administration has said that ticketing companies should disclose ticket prices upfront.
The new law would stop businesses from pulling a Texas switch, as consumers and various others have previously told FTC before announcing this new rule proposal.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
