Corporations are charging families excessive fees on everything from cable to credit cards to home rentals, hiding them until the last minute
Junk fees include cable early termination fees, bank overdraft fees, car rental and hotel resort fees
FTC estimates that families would save $1.23B per year on event tickets and hotel stays alone by requiring companies to move to all-in pricing, billions more if enacted across other industries
Read Casey’s latest greedflation report “Additional Charges May Apply: How Big Corporations Use Hidden Fees to Nickel, Dime, and Deceive American Families” HERE
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Children & Families, released his fourth greedflation report detailing how big corporations are tacking on excessive fees at the tail end of everyday purchases, from internet plans to ATM withdrawals. The new greedflation report entitled, “Additional Charges May Apply: How Big Corporations Use Hidden Fees to Nickel, Dime, and Deceive American Families” is a continuation of Senator Casey’s investigation into how corporate greed is squeezing families’ budgets and lays out Casey’s vision to hold these companies accountable to put money back in the pockets of American families.
“From cable bills to rental cars, greedy corporations are ripping off hard-working American families with excessive fees to pad their bottom line. It’s sinful, and one of the reasons Americans are feeling squeezed when it’s time to pick up the check or pay off their credit card,” said Senator Casey. “My report exposes why working families’ dollars don’t go as far as they used to and what I’m doing to fight back against the corporations that are putting their profits over people.”
Senator Casey believes that no Pennsylvanian should be blindsided by a junk fee and that the negative impacts of hidden fees can be mitigated by: fighting deceptive practices that allow corporations to hide the fees they charge consumers; preventing corporations from deceptively passing along their expenses to working families through bogus fees; and protecting businesses that are honest about their pricing structures.
In November 2023, Casey released his first report, “Greedflation: How Corporations Are Making Record Profits on the Backs of American Families,” finding that between 2020 and 2022, corporate profits rose by?75 percent—five times as fast as inflation; 41 percent of inflation was due solely to corporate-profit making. The report detailed how big corporations are using inflation as cover to raise prices on everything from toothpaste and toilet paper to Ben & Jerry’s and Diet Coke to rake in record profits at the expense of middle-class American families.
The same month, Casey released his second report of his Greedflation series, “Stuffing Their Pockets: How Big Food and Agriculture Businesses Are Making Your Holiday Meals More Expensive,” examining how the price of food has risen faster than most other goods and pushing the Federal Trade Commission and United States Department of Agriculture to investigate possible unfair pricing practices of major chicken and pork processors in the U.S.
In December 2023, Casey released his third report of his Greedflation series, “Less Bang for Your Buck: Casey Releases Shrinkflation Report Exposing Big Corporations for Reducing Product Size While Keeping Prices High,” calling out household consumer products, food, and beverage corporations for reducing the size of household consumer goods, from toilet paper to cereals to snacks, while continuing to sell them at the same retail price.
Read the full report “Additional Charges May Apply: How Big Corporations Use Hidden Fees to Nickel, Dime, and Deceive American Families” HERE or click on the report below.
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