A rare little victory for consumers

In these days of government of, by and for brass knuckles capitalism and elite capitalists, consumers generally get a kick in the 🥜 instead of protection from government. But once in a while, the government sneaks a little treat in between the kicks to the groin area. Ars Technica writes about an unexpected little consumer victory: 

The Federal Communications Commission yesterday rejected requests to eliminate an upcoming requirement that Internet service providers list all of their monthly fees.

Five major trade groups representing US broadband providers petitioned the FCC in January to scrap the requirement before it takes effect. In June, Comcast told the FCC that the listing-every-fee rule "impose[s] significant administrative burdens and unnecessary complexity in complying with the broadband label requirements."

The five trade groups kept up the pressure earlier this month in a meeting with FCC officials and in a filing that complained that listing every fee is too hard. The FCC refused to bend, announcing yesterday that the rules will take effect without major changes.

"Every consumer needs transparent information when making decisions about what Internet service offering makes the most sense for their family or household. No one wants to be hit with charges they didn't ask for or they did not expect," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said.

Woof! Rosenworcel is quite the morsel! 

In its dismissal of the broadband industry's claims that itemizing fees would be too confusing for customers and too burdensome for providers, the FCC pointedly noted that ISPs are allowed to use a simpler pricing model: .... Further, we are not persuaded that it will be burdensome for ISPs to itemize on the label those fees they opt to pass along to consumers above the monthly price, particularly since providers acknowledge being able to describe such fees to a consumer over the phone and on a consumer's bill once the consumer subscribes to service. We also find that any such burdens are far outweighed by the benefits to consumers when they are shopping for service.

Isn't it interesting that merely listing all the hidden fees and surprises is such a huge burden and "unnecessary complexity", but dreaming the fees up and imposing them on consumers is not a concern?  

One can reasonably think that if listing fees on bills to consumers is X difficult and complicating, dreaming up the fess and imposing and tracking them is ~30X difficult and complicating. Right? Right.

By Germaine: Snarling watchdog of the public interest

One of Germaine's minions doing consumer protection research