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.
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.
This is a very common feature of such ads. In small print, of course.