FTC and CFPB to implement actions to follow the president’s lead.
President Joe Biden gave a speech from the White House Rose Garden this week, addressing the pervasive use of junk fees by companies to extract even more profit from consumers.
The president said, “Research shows that without realizing it, folks can end up paying as much as 20 percent more because of hidden junk fees than they would have paid if they could see the full price up front and compare it with other options. It’s wrong.”
Moving in concert with his speech, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unveiled policy proposals to specifically target companies’ overuse of junk fees. The FTC proposed a rule to ban hidden fees across a wide span of industries, including car rental agencies, hotels, and ticketing providers. The CFPB issued an advisory opinion, proposing that banks and credit unions cannot charge fees to consumers checking account balances.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For the president and his administration as they seek to eliminate junk fees from the U.S. marketplace.
- For members of the Federal Trade Commission as they implement rules that ban hidden fees.
- For CFPB officials as they seek to prohibit junk fees in the financial industry.
Sources: Reuters, The White House
