Bill to Ban Hidden Fees in California Signed into Law
Bill to Ban Hidden Fees in California Signed into Law
OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued a statement in response to Senate Bill 478 (SB 478), a bill that he sponsored, being signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. Coauthored by Senator Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the legislation will prohibit h...
That's great! Deceptive pricing is so annoying. First time I had to rent a U-Haul, I quickly learned it does not cost $19.95. Not even close.
$19.95 for the privilege of paying us $0.75 a mile! Also, would you like a dolly for $75/day?
Did you pay to rent pads today to nit break your shit? Well they aren't in the truck, so all well. Sure we will take that off your bill wink wink.
Enjoy arguing with us for the money we said we would refund after doing a crazy stressful move!
All the vacation rental places are appalling. Cleaning few. Pool few. Resort fee. Service fee. Processing fee.
Restaurants are starting on the cash grab a few years back, mostly the ones owned by private equity firms. Mandatory service fee couched as a gratuity, which it most often isn't, so the guest and the servers get fucked.
This law does not ban hidden fees. There are plenty of hidden fees that this law does nothing about.
This law makes it illegal to advertise a price that doesn't account for included fees. If a concert ticket is $40 with a $20 "service" fee, this law would require the tickets to be listed as $60 tickets. This law does not require taxes to be included in advertised prices, sales tax is added after the advertised price.
This law only prohibits misleading advertising of pricing, it however does not require disclosure of pricing.
The biggest source of hidden fees is the medical billing. Healthcare costs are nearly all hidden fees because healthcare providers rarely disclose prices in advance. This bill does nothing about that, because if a price is not advertised, this bill does not effect it, and this bill does not require disclosure of pricing in advance.
This bill is an improvement. This bill will reduce misrepresentation of pricing, but it does not actually ban hidden fees outright.
What about pricing like at my local Kroger store where in the list 99 cents with digital coupon and a QR code and then teeny teeny tiny text that says $3.99 regular price.
Watch out, Comcast.
And cell phone carriers! This is just common sense. We need more of this.
Watch out every company I deal with. Even my utilities can't give me an answer of where the extra fees are going.
Ticketmaster
Permanently Deleted
If I am a small business and I advertise one price and sell it for another. It's called bait and switch and it's illegal. If you're a big company, they have to write special rules for you I guess.
Edit: I misremembered the text, "This practice, like other forms of bait and switch advertising, is prohibited by existing statutes" This law will probably make enforcement easier because the law is now more specific.
Under California law it's not a bait and switch to advertise a base price before fees. That's why they passed this law. The text of the bill mentions the fact that this sort of pricing did not violate California's bait and switch laws prior to its introduction.
All this legislation coming out of Cali seems too good to be true
Does this mean stores will list prices with tax included? >_>
It’s so crazy they don’t have to do that in America. Advertised prices should include all fees and taxes.
I'm guessing it might be because tax rates vary so wildly in the US. Every state has their own percentage of state taxes, and then many counties and cities have their own specific tax rate on top of that.
A company might sell a product nationwide, and it's easier for them to do national advertising that their product is $100 + local taxes than it is for them to make hundreds upon hundreds of different local ads with a precise dollar amount.
No taxes are specifically exempted.
Kinda seems like they can already, at least in CA? I don't know why people in the states are so weird about this.
https://www.taxjar.com/blog/retail/can-retailer-include-sales-tax-in-the-price
They can, yes. I want them to have to.
I hope this will make it clear how much people actually pay on their retirement accounts. Far too many people I talk to don’t realize that they are paying an “expense ratio” on their investment funds.
Bill who? Well, good job Bill
Comcast right now:
So does this include sales tax?