Wouldn't that solve most of the problem?
The problem isn't really the cost, it's the deception. It tricks consumers and prevents an efficient market for goods and services, and as the article states, creates a particularly bad experience for at least some consumers that the business can justify in the name of profit.
If everyone knew this was happening, they would spend more time trying to avoid falling prey to it. Nobody is paying an extra fifty bucks because they don't want to spend the extra twenty minutes. But if every consumer knew this, it wouldn't be deception, it would be friction. And companies would eventually stop doing it to make their service more appealing.
Yes, but the US Regulators have been "captured" by some of these monopolistic industries, to the point that the monopolies can do these things w/o worrying about laws against them:
As a consumer it’s hard to differentiate junk fees from mandatory fees imposed by federal, state, county, municipalities fees. As an example I pay different sales taxes for the same internet plan in 2 different states. Another example is my cellphone plan was slightly higher in another city/county than my current residence due to different E911 fees. The difference is usually cents to a dollar.
The only exception are optional upgrades, and even those have to be clearly disclosed in advance.
This is a very common feature of such ads. In small print, of course.
In EU these kind of sheenings never happen.
Airplane sites tried with payment fees, adding 40/50€ for ALL providers. EU changed the law that the price has to include the fee for at least 1 payment… So if the cheapest is paypal at 30€, they have to add 30€ to the price.
Maybe because it's more fragmented in terms of language/culture, so you don't have ad campaigns that span both ends of the continent? The wider prevalence of unitary governments (as opposed to federal systems) also help.
By requiring any listed price to be inclusive of fees. Australia does the same.
No "$100/night" in the search results if the checkout adds a $20/night resort fee.
If they're adding a surcharge for something you would reasonably expect to be included in the offering which they advertised at a lower price, it would be false advertising.
You'd at least run afoul of the act against unfair competition:
German version / English version
§5 Misleading commercial practices: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/uwg_2004/__5.html / https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_uwg/englisch_uwg...
§5a Misleading by omission: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/uwg_2004/__5a.html / https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_uwg/englisch_uwg...
Some quotes:
> A commercial practice is regarded as misleading if it contains false statements or other information suited to deception regarding the following circumstances: [..] 2. the reason for the purchase, such as the existence of a specific price advantage, the price or the manner in which the price is calculated [..]
> The following are also regarded as an omission of information: 1. the hiding of material information, 2. the provision of material information in an unclear, unintelligible or ambiguous manner, 3. the provision of material information in an untimely manner.
That's not what it says though. It merely empowers the BMWK - with agreement of the federal assembly - to decide in which manner prices of consumer goods are be provided and calculated. They then may decide that prices of airline tickets have to be listed a certain way.
It also empowers the BMWK to pretty much turn businesses upside down to make sure they're following these rules.
That's pretty much all it says. It's a really short law of just two paragraphs (used to be three, but one got removed).
Including the tax in the price is so much nicer.
I would love either of these in the US — both would be massive improvements over “you thought it was $100/night until you clicked a couple times and found the $40”.
But the most important thing: Price on the first page you see is the same that gonna be charged.
Same thing for flight bookings, what you see on the search is what you pay!
What inovative concept by the EU!
Airbnb adds fees that goes to airbnb ( vs the host). How does that look in germany, its added to the price host sets. Host sees a different price/night on the listing than what she set ?
also, Airbnb lets you see cleaning price in the listing, so its not a hidden fee.
The price that's advertised in the overview includes all fees, so you can't appear more attractive by shifting costs to the cleaning fee.
this is usa https://imgur.com/a/FJaKHvS
Hotels do the same thing on HotelTonight. When the amount of the resort fee/cleaning fee ends up doubling the price, that's just dishonesty - even if the truth does eventually come out.
It is though. both in sorting and filtering.
Australia makes them put that in the price. It's why using the Australian AirBnB site to find an AirBnB is so much nicer.
> also, Airbnb lets you see cleaning price in the listing, so its not a hidden fee.
They make it hard to compare listings based on total price, though. Which is especially bullshit when a bunch of listings are clearly using the cleaning fee to boost profit, not to cover cleaning.