OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 13, 2024) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond is voicing support for the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) proposed Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees.
Drummond and a bipartisan coalition of 18 other state attorneys general recently filed a comment letter in response to an FTC notice of proposed rulemaking, which allowed for comments on the proposed rule’s provisions, including:
- Prohibiting ‘bait and switch’ advertising by requiring businesses, from the outset, to clearly and conspicuously disclose the total price, inclusive of any mandatory fees;
- Requiring businesses to more prominently display the total price when pricing information is advertised;
- Prohibiting businesses from misrepresenting the nature and purpose of any fee, and;
- Requiring businesses to clearly and conspicuously disclose the nature and purpose of certain fees (such as shipping charges and optional fees) before the consumer consents to pay.
“’Bait and switch’ advertising is a common practice used to deceive consumers and businesses into making decisions. This proposed rule would help ensure transparency in business, and ultimately is in the best interest for all consumers,” said Drummond.
The Feb. 7 letter notes that junk fees hurt consumers by concealing the real prices of goods and services, as well as honest businesses that lose out to competitors that use the deceptive practice to appear as the better bargain.
“Such deceptive conduct also frustrates consumers’ efforts in comparison shopping, especially online, where, presumably, many consumers do most of their research,” states the letter. “Hard-working consumers should not have to waste their valuable, leisure time researching prices by being forced to navigate through multiple webpages of multiple websites, including hyperlinks to exhausting terms and conditions containing verbose legalese in miniscule and sometimes obscured fonts, then entering all of their payment and other personal information to reach the check-out page, so that they can hopefully, finally learn the true and final cost of the good or service.”
In their letter, the attorneys general support the FTC’s proposed rule and highlight their enforcement efforts in protecting consumers from deceptive fee practices.
Led by Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the letter is also signed by attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
A copy of the letter can be found here https://www.oag.ok.gov/sites/g/files/gmc766/f/documents/2024/2024.2.7_co...