OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued a statement in response to Senate Bill 478 (SB 478), a bill that he sponsored, being signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. Coauthored by Senator Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the legislation will prohibit hidden fees (also called ‘junk fees’) in California beginning on July 1, 2024.
Hidden fees are fees in which a seller uses an artificially low headline price to attract a customer and usually either discloses additional required fees in smaller print, or reveals additional unavoidable charges later in the buying process.
Californians will know up front how much they’re being asked to pay, and no longer be surprised by hidden junk fees when buying a concert or sports ticket or booking hotel rooms for their family vacation.”
If I am a small business and I advertise one price and sell it for another. It’s called bait and switch and it’s illegal. If you’re a big company, they have to write special rules for you I guess.
Edit: I misremembered the text, “This practice, like other forms of bait and switch advertising, is prohibited by existing statutes” This law will probably make enforcement easier because the law is now more specific.
Under California law it’s not a bait and switch to advertise a base price before fees. That’s why they passed this law. The text of the bill mentions the fact that this sort of pricing did not violate California’s bait and switch laws prior to its introduction.
If I am a small business and I advertise one price and sell it for another. It’s called bait and switch and it’s illegal. If you’re a big company, they have to write special rules for you I guess.
Edit: I misremembered the text, “This practice, like other forms of bait and switch advertising, is prohibited by existing statutes” This law will probably make enforcement easier because the law is now more specific.
Under California law it’s not a bait and switch to advertise a base price before fees. That’s why they passed this law. The text of the bill mentions the fact that this sort of pricing did not violate California’s bait and switch laws prior to its introduction.