Today’s economy seems riddled with hidden taxes and fees and what exactly they are for is often never clear and is imposing the Junk Fee Prevention Act.
A simple concert ticket can be jacked up 30% by hidden fees. United States President, Joe Biden is taking action against this saying that the fees are often frustrating, deceptive and downright expensive.
So he is calling for a Junk Fee Prevention Act in an effort to ax hidden fees and curb how consumers are often overcharged by corporations.
White House Efforts On Junk Fee
Biden says this is part of the White House’s efforts to stop the proliferation of fees (under the Junk Fee Prevention Act) in industries ranging from banking to ticketing to travel. In October, the White House also rolled out a blog post outlining its plans to take on junk fees.
Agencies like the Department of Transportation are also looking at fees in their department.
“Junk fees may not matter to the very wealthy but they matter to most folks in homes like the one I grew up in. They add up to hundreds of dollars a month. They make it harder for you to pay the bills or afford that family trip. I know how unfair it feels when a company overcharges you and gets away with it. Not anymore.”’
The idea being that companies can charge for their services but they need to be fair and honest about those charges and not be tricky about it with hidden fees.
Senior fellow in economics at the think tank Brookings Institution, Aaron Klein said in an interview, “Basic economics teaches us that supply and demand and prices are market signals. Common sense shows that people shop and compare goods on the basis of price, among other things.
“The internet revolutionized how we bought and sold goods and services, so what we’re finding is that in the quest to have the lowest price, cost is being moved from price to fees, so that consumers think they’re buying something at a cheaper price when in point of fact the true cost to that might be higher.”
The Junk Fee Prevention Act has not come into effect yet as actual legislation, for now it’s more talking points as the White House starts looking into the bill.