This is an opinion piece. The views are the author’s own.
Here is a small test of whether a price is honest: is it the number you will actually pay? For a growing list of purchases in the United States, the law now says it has to be. For everything else, you are still expected to play a guessing game that ends at the checkout screen.
That makes no sense. All-in pricing should be the rule everywhere, nationwide, for everything.
Half a Rule Is Better Than None
The Federal Trade Commission’s fees rule took effect on May 12, 2025. It requires sellers of live-event tickets and short-term lodging, from hotels to vacation rentals, to show the total price, including mandatory fees, up front and more prominently than other numbers. Taxes, shipping and true add-ons can still come later, as long as they’re disclosed before you pay.
It already has teeth. In April 2026 StubHub agreed to pay $10 million in refunds after the FTC said it kept advertising ticket prices without mandatory fees in the days right after the rule began.
But the FTC’s original 2023 proposal was not limited to tickets and hotels. It would have applied across the economy. The final version, approved in December 2024, was narrowed to those two industries. The agency estimated that even that version could save Americans up to 53 million hours a year spent hunting for real prices.
The Map Is a Mess
States have been filling the gap, unevenly. California’s honest-pricing law, in effect since July 1, 2024, covers most consumer goods and services. Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and Virginia have broad rules of their own, and Connecticut’s took effect July 1, 2026. Several other states only cover tickets.
So a “service fee” that must be baked into the price in Sacramento can still pop up at the last step in a state next door. Online, where the same checkout serves every ZIP code, shoppers have no reliable way to know which rules they get.
The Fair Objection, and the Answer
Businesses argue that some costs really do vary: sales tax depends on where you live, and shipping depends on what you buy. Fine. California and the FTC already exclude government taxes, reasonable shipping and optional extras. Nobody is asking a store to predict your tax rate. The request is narrower: if a fee is mandatory, it is part of the price.
Honest sellers should want this too. When one company lists $40 and a rival lists $49 all-in, the drip-pricer looks cheaper until the shopper is too invested to walk away. A single national standard would level that field and spare companies from tracking a patchwork of state rules.
Just Show the Number
We already accept this logic for gas pumps and grocery shelves. Nobody would tolerate a “pump access fee” revealed after the tank is full. The same respect should apply to a concert, a delivery order, an apartment application or a gym membership.
Congress or the FTC could extend the all-in rule to every consumer purchase. Until then, the simplest consumer habit is the one regulators keep endorsing: compare totals, not teasers, and walk away from any checkout that makes you hunt for the real price.
More on Contoh
- Stop Spinning the Tip Screen Around
- Forecasters See a Record Holiday Season, With Inflation Doing Some of the Lifting
Sources
- TechCrunch: FTC bans hidden fees for live events and short-term rentals, effective May 12
- FTC: StubHub refunding $10 million in fees to consumers after deceptive ticket pricing
- Foley & Lardner: FTC announces final junk fees rule applying to live-event tickets and short-term lodging
- NBC News: FTC announces final rule banning junk fees on tickets and hotels
- California Attorney General: SB 478 hidden fees
- Troutman Pepper Locke: State attorneys general and continued enforcement against junk fees in 2026