According to WRIC 8 News, a bill is making its way through the Virginia General Assembly to ban "junk fees."
Some people might not be familiar with the term, but they are surely familiar with paying extra fees that have been added to the price of items such as concert tickets, car rentals, and hotel rooms. Junk fees are those extra fees tacked on to the advertised price that consumers don't know about until they get their invoice to pay.
The junk fees bill
Virginia Senator Stella Pekarsky (D-Fairfax) submitted a bill to make it illegal for companies to add junk fees to their products and services. She is leading an effort to amend Virginia’s Consumer Protection Act to make it illegal for businesses to offer any goods and services without “prominently displaying the total price, which shall include all mandatory fees or charges other than taxes imposed.”
Pekarsky told 8 News:
“If you are going to sell a good or a service, you need to present the consumer the total price of all mandatory fees right up front. Give it to the consumer right up front so they can budget, they can plan, there’s transparency for them and so they don’t have to spend their time going through an entire transaction just to find out maybe at the end, they can’t afford the price of a good or service.”
Petarsky’s SB 388 comes after federal regulators proposed similar measures to eliminate fees that often aren’t disclosed at the beginning of a transaction. Pekarsky, a former small business owner, says it’s about improving transparency between businesses and consumers.
The bill was approved by a Senate committee on February 2, 2024. It is now heading to the floor for a vote.