Biden expands his war on junk fees to help Americans

The White House is widening its campaign on junk fees to the rental housing market in an attempt to lower costs and increase transparency according to a recent statement. 

Junk fees are the hidden costs and unexpected charges that aren’t included in the initial price of a product or service and are only revealed at the end of a transaction according to a BBC News explanation of the bothersome additional costs. 

Evidence presented by the White House suggests hidden fees can cost consumers as much as 20% more than the actual price of a product or service when it's not disclosed. 

President Joe Biden has been cracking down on junk fees ever since he called out the troublesome hidden costs in his State of the Union speech all the way back in February.

“Junk fees may not matter to the very wealthy, but they matter to most folks in homes like the one I grew up in. They add up to hundreds of dollars a month,” Biden explained.

“They make it harder for you to pay the bills or afford that family trip. I know how unfair it feels when a company overcharges you and gets away with it,” the President continued. 

Biden said it would end and he’s been making headway on his promise. The President went after the private ticketing and travel markets in June and has turned ire to rentals.

Zillow, Apartments.com, and AffordableHousing.com—three of the largest online rental platforms in the country—have agreed to work with Biden to disclose total costs upfront. 

The White House noted the changes will provide consumers with data on the total cost of rental properties, which can sometimes run hundreds of dollars over advertised rates. 

This effort is part of Biden’s larger goal to tackle junk fees across several industries and was unveiled alongside a host of measures meant to help consumers Reuters reported. 

“Folks are tired of being played for suckers,” Biden explained at a meeting of the White House Competition Council, “it’s about basic fairness. Today, we’re taking more action.”

The President announced a bipartisan effort to crack down on pricing fixing in the food and agricultural sector and new merger guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission. 

Biden explained that groceries in consolidated markets will charge their customers more because consumers can’t go elsewhere and said we needed to stop accepting bad mergers. 

The Department of Agriculture and its partners will now ensure large corporations can’t artificially raise the cost of food while the merger guidelines ensure corporate interests can’t monopolize markets and charge customers more for their products or services. 

Biden used the example of a hospital in his remarks at the meeting of the White House Competition Council, noting how consolidated markets lead to big premium increases.

“For example, hospital mergers have led to price increases of 20 percent or more,” the President said, adding later that “we cannot accept bad mergers that lead to mass layoffs, higher prices, and fewer options for workers and consumers.”

Whether or not these measures will help American consumers has yet to be seen but it is refreshing to see political leaders trying to make changes that are aimed at helping the country’s citizens rather than its corporations.