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Even death offers no escape, with the increasingly consolidated funeral home sector levying fees to both open and close your casket:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-01-24-big-funeral-exploits-consumers-inflation/

Everyone's got a junk-fee. Your bank charges you "paper statement fees" and "returned mail fees." Restaurants created "pandemic fees" to help cover their extra costs during lockdown, and continue to charge them today.

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Big Funeral Exploits Consumers Under Guise of Inflation

Reduced inflation across the economy magnifies the sectors where high markups persist.

^{Luke Goldstein (The American Prospect)}

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Hot NYC restaurants take a $100 deposit with your reservation, and pocket it if you are *one minute* late showing up at the greeter's podium. Perch, a bar in LA, charges every guest a 4.5% "security fee":

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-09/restaurant-security-surcharge-new-junk-fee-law

Anyone who's used a food delivery app knows about junk-fees - that's how your McDonald's meal deal goes from $4.99 to $25.

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Perch charges diners a 'security' fee. A new law may change that

An L.A. restaurant is imposing a 'security charge' on diners' bills, but that might change soon — a new state law bans unadvertised service fees.

^{Summer Lin (Los Angeles Times)}

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People *hate* these fees. A big Yougov poll of 40 policy ideas identified banning junk-fees as the *most* popular idea among a representative sample of voters:

https://blueprint2024.com/polling/tlp-biden-trump-economics/

83% of voters say they'd be more likely to vote for a candidate who'd ban junk-fees:

http://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/LRP-AELP-National-Junk-Fee-Survey-Memo-f-2.23.2024.pdf

As Kanu notes, this raises a natural question: who *likes* junk-fees?

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Blueprint & The Liberal Patriot: The 40 Policy Ideas That Will Define the 2024 Race - Blueprint

“This knife’s-edge election is currently about two things: inflation and immigration,” said Blueprint lead pollster Evan Roth Smith.

^{Ben (Blueprint)}

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Well, Big Business and its apologists, naturally. When the CFPB introduced a rule capping just one of the credit card industry's most egregious junk-fees, the US Chamber of Commerce sued:

https://www.uschamber.com/cases/consumer-protection/cfpb-late-fees-rule

The Chamber has also warned the FTC that they'll sue over any attempt to limit junk-fees:

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/ftcs-proposed-junk-fee-ban-draws-legal-threats-from-industry

This is predictable enough, but the wildest part is the big business has figured out how to make paying junk-fees into a culture war issue.

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Chamber of Commerce v. CFPB

Challenge to CFPB Credit Card Late Fees Rule

^{U.S. Chamber Staff (U.S. Chamber of Commerce)}

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Despite big business's knack for getting America's turkeys to vote for Christmas, the Democrats are (wisely) treating the war on junk-fees as an election issue. The agencies are all in on fighting them. The DOT has banned hidden airline fees:

https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/biden-harris-administration-announces-final-rule-protect-consumers-surprise-airline

HUD is cracking down on landlord fees:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/02/29/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-actions-to-boost-housing-supply-and-lower-housing-costs/

Health and Human Services is bent on destroying "junk health insurance":

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/04/03/2024-06551/short-term-limited-duration-insurance-and-independent-noncoordinated-excepted-benefits-coverage

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FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Actions to Boost Housing Supply and Lower Housing Costs | The White House

New actions will create tens of thousands of affordable homes, while promoting fairer and more transparent rental markets President Biden believes that every American deserves access to a quality and affordable home.

^{The White House}

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The Department of Education is going after textbook fees, student loan origination fees, and universities pocketing leftover meal plan prepayments at the end of the semester:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/15/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-takes-new-action-to-crack-down-on-junk-fees-in-higher-education/

And CFPB wants to ban mortgage closing fees and has issued orders banning many common bank fees:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/junk-fees/

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FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Takes New Action to Crack Down on Junk Fees in Higher Education | The White House

Reforms would save students and borrowers billions in unnecessary fees and improve the college and loan repayment experience.

^{The White House}

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CFPB boss Rohit Chopra told Kanu that we can all join the fight, encouraging us to file consumer complaints with state attorneys general and the CFPB itself when you encounter junk-fee scams in the wild:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

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Submit a complaint | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Find information and tools to submit a consumer complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

^{Consumer Financial Protection Bureau}

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Image:
Flying Logos (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Over_$1,000,000_dollars_in_USD_$100_bill_stacks.png

CC BY-SA 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

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File:Over $1,000,000 dollars in USD $100 bill stacks.png - Wikimedia Commons

^{commons.wikimedia.org}