Anyone who’s bought a flight, a concert or sports ticket, or a vacation stay recently knows that the price they thought they were paying is not always the price they end up paying. After settling on the desired option, you encounter the onerous and daunting process of checking out: clicking through screen after screen until suddenly, right before it’s time to hit “pay,” the price jumps—and you have to squint to read all of the fees, surcharges, and other costs that have been tacked on at the end. Consumers have to decide to either suck it up and pay or go back to the beginning and comb through other options.
Though familiar from the above examples, this practice is popping up everywhere, even when finding a place to live: A Guardian investigation last week exposed Greystar, a private equity–backed apartment building management company, for piling obscene fees on renters, who are often hooked into long-term leases and can’t escape the fees easily.
Last week, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a law banning junk fees in the state, joining at least four other states—Connecticut, Colorado, Minnesota, and Virginia—in prohibiting companies from showing a cheap price up front and then surprising customers with additional costs when it comes time to buy. “We’re talking about hidden fees, about artificial scarcity, predatory lending products, ticket schemes that make it harder and more expensive for families to just enjoy a night out,” Pritzker said at the signing ceremony. “Together, those things add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars every year for many Illinois families.”
Tackling junk fees is shaping up to be a big part of the Democrats’ affordability agenda, and it touches on a complaint many Americans have with the economy that is more complex than simply price hikes and supply chain disruptions. Prices aren’t just out of reach for families, but companies are manipulating customers to increase their profits. Americans want a fairer playing field.
President Joe Biden tried to tackle this problem in some major industries before his term ended. Notably, fans’ anger at Ticketmaster pricing during Beyoncé and Taylor Swift tours led to a congressional hearing and ultimately new Federal Trade Commission rules for event tickets and lodging. Biden’s secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, also tried to ban some junk fees on flights. These fees make airlines billions, and they got the ban thrown out in court. President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, is a former lobbyist whose clients included the airline industry, so it’s no wonder he’s been more focused on weakening passengers’ rights and protections.
Junk fees aren’t just an annoyance. They gum up the works of a competitive marketplace, making it harder for families to find affordable goods and services. And it costs them money, not just in fees but in their time. A 2024 FTC study estimated that banning these kinds of deceptive pricing practices could save Americans $11 billion over a decade.
In the wake of Biden’s efforts, some cities and states took up the cause. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has targeted some industries in New York City. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill has directed her administration to review such fees, and Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued a large landlord in the city over junk fees. Several states are considering laws similar to Illinois’s, and even more states may ban dynamic pricing using artificial intelligence that relies on captured personal data.
“Increasingly, pricing feels deceptive, or at a minimum, it doesn’t feel transparent anymore,” said Lindsay Owens, the president and CEO of Groundwork Collaborative, a nonprofit advocacy group that has studied various aspects of the Annoyance Economy. “The lack of transparency, lack of predictability, are things that make the consumer experience in America really frustrating.”
But a lot of the tools the federal government uses to make sure customers are getting a fair shake and companies aren’t gouging them for excess profits, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and similar agencies, have been neutered or abandoned in the Trump administration. That would presumably change under a Democratic president. In the meantime, two Democrats—Florida Representative Maxwell Frost and Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley—have introduced bills in their respective chambers to ban junk fees for renters, but neither seems likely to move forward in the GOP-controlled Congress.
Americans remain angry about the economy for a host of reasons. Prices are rising, but products are also getting worse and more annoying to buy. If you do sign up for a subscription or product, it’s harder to cancel. Workers’ wages aren’t rising as fast as profits for shareholders are, and companies do everything they can to squeeze more money out of us. “Consumers are fed up,” Owens said. In their anger lies a clear opportunity for Democrats, which some of them are finally seizing.
