[ Why did it take so long for other presidents to appreciate the
power of these regulatory counterweights?]
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BIDEN TAKES INITIATIVE AGAINST JUNK FEES  
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Robert Kuttner
October 11, 2023
The American Prospect
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_ Why did it take so long for other presidents to appreciate the
power of these regulatory counterweights? _

Junk fees at hotels and other industries have cost consumers
billions, usually as last minute add-ons., Photo: Iman Kyoto

 

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
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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
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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
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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.

_Kuttner is the co-founder and current co-editor of The American
Prospect [[link removed]],_

_Used with the permission. The American Prospect, Prospect.org, 2023.
All rights reserved._

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* Junk fees
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* government regulation
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* President Joe Biden
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