Woonsocket Radio News Room

Ujifusa and Potter sponsor bills to prohibit hidden “junk fees” on consumer goods and services

STATE HOUSE –Warwick resident Pearl Holloway was excited to buy her grandchildren Harlem Globetrotter tickets whose lowest ticket price at an online site was $23.  After promising to take them, Pearl was horrified to learn that each of those tickets required her to pay a $14.75 “service fee” — a 64% increase — that raised the price for a family of four from $92 to $151.  

“I didn’t want to disappoint my grandchildren, so I just bought the tickets,” said Holloway, and she is not alone. Research has shown that 10 specific kinds of junk fees amount to $90 billion per year in the United States, or more than $650 per household per year on average. 

Holloway was so concerned about what she called a “bait and switch” that she called her friends Senator Linda Ujifusa (D-Dist. 11, Portsmouth, Bristol) and House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Dist. 23, Warwick), also her state representative, to see if something could be done.

This year, Sen. Linda Ujifusa and Rep. Brandon Potter (D-Dist. 16, Cranston) are introducing  identical bills in the General Assembly (2025-S 0017, 2025-H 5247)  that target undisclosed mandatory fees, such as those typically tacked on to event tickets and many other products and services. The legislation would make it a deceptive trade practice in Rhode Island to advertise, display or offer a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or charges other than government taxes and shipping.

“Junk fees go by many names — convenience charges, facilities fees, service charges and more — but they are usually just an excuse to charge consumers more than the advertised price of an item or service,” said Senator Ujifusa. “If the fee is mandatory, it’s part of the price. Telling consumers that the price is lower is false advertising that should be prohibited.”

Said Representative Potter, “Junk fees are one of the most obvious examples of how large corporations rip off everyday people every day. Consumers deserve the right to know what they’re paying for what they buy, and now, with the Trump administration shutting down the Consumer Protection Bureau, states urgently need to step up and crack down on corporations that make it their business model to con people.”

The House Corporations Committee has scheduled a hearing on the bill tomorrow.

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha supports this legislation and has said, “these types of hidden fees make it nearly impossible for even the most well-informed consumers to price shop.”

This bill has the support of a broad coalition of 52 consumer advocacy groups. In addition, New York, Tennessee, Connecticut, California, Maryland, Colorado, and Minnesota have recently passed laws that ban junk fees and many other states are considering doing so as well.

Customers subjected to hidden fees in online ticket sales spend significantly more than those shown the true price up front.

 “If this proposed law were in place,” said Senator Ujifusa, “my friend Pearl and countless other Rhode Islanders would be protected from hidden mandatory fees and able to spend their hard-earned dollars on things they really want or need.”