Junk fees are right target

Airlines advertise low fares but assess fees for everything from each piece of baggage to your actual seat selection. Hotel chains that operate resorts charge “resort fees” even for stays at their other hotels that are not resorts. Rental car companies charge daily for toll transponders, even if the rented car does not travel a tolled road.

And the king of hidden fees, Ticketmaster, often assesses fees that result in actual costs of entertainment tickets being one-third or more higher than the advertised price.

The Biden administration wants to crack down on such hidden fees, as President Joe Biden stated Tuesday in his State of the Union address. It has coined the apt term, “junk fees,” to describe the open-ended consumer gouging.

In one important way, it has begun to undermine the corporate world’s ability to assess such fees.

Often, as in the case of Ticketmaster, companies are able to assess junk fees with impunity because they are monopolies that need not fear competitors with fairer consumer practices.

The Department of Justice has taken a much tougher stance against corporate mergers that produce such anti-consumer monopolies, than any administration in recent history.

But that doesn’t help with existing fees.

The administration has begun to press Congress for a law requiring complete, specific disclosure of all fees attached to any transaction, which in itself might produce more consumer-friendly behavior.

And, it wants the right to limit fees such as bank overdraft and credit card late payment charges.

Congress would well serve consumers by joining the fight against junk fees.