Star Tribune
Minnesotans could be spending thousands each year on ‘junk fees.’ Some lawmakers want to ban them.
These hidden fees pop up at the end of a transaction, right at the moment a consumer is about to purchase a product.
“Think about the last time you went out for dinner, or ordered online and saw a convenience fee, a service fee, a wellness fee that you weren’t quite sure what that was for,” said Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis.
She’s carrying a bill this year to reign in the proliferation of businesses adding so-called hidden “junk fees” at the end of purchases, which have driven up the costs of everything from ordering at a restaurant and getting concert tickets to buying products online.
Greenman’s bill, which is ready for a full vote in the Minnesota House, would amend the state’s deceptive trade practices act and require any mandatory fee or surcharge to be included in the advertised or list price for goods and services.
“These junk fees have become impossible to avoid and leave consumers frustrated and confused and, importantly, make it impossible for them to comparison shop,” she said.
The state-level push is happening at the same time the federal government is trying to crack down on these kinds of fees. Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is pushing bills to stop hidden fees in ticket sales and hotel bookings. The Federal Trade Commission is working on rules to ban hidden and misleading fees and require businesses to provide consumers with the total price up front.
Consumer Reports estimates the average American family spends more than $3,000 annually on junk fees.
Representatives from businesses asked Minnesota lawmakers to pump the brakes on the bill at least until the federal government has finished its rule-setting process.
“We do remain concerned over the implementation of this law and the potential inconsistencies and conflicts with the federal rules being proposed on this very issue,” said Beth Kadoun, who works on tax and fiscal policy for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.
Scott Lambert, president of the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association, said purchasing a vehicle is not a “simple, quick or an impulse item” and consumers have options for additional fees for things such as expediting their license plates or titles. Those would all have to be disclosed under the proposed legislation, he said.
“The deceptive trade practice statute has been used for years by the [attorney general] to very strong effect to enforce the state’s advertising laws,” he said. “This legislation, in our view, is a big departure, providing a prohibition against a specific act and doing so in a very prohibitive way.”
The bill does make some exceptions. It allows restaurants to add automatic tipping at the end of a transaction, although it would prohibit other types of fees from being added on to the bill. It also allows the cost of postage and shipping to be posted and listed separately.
Legislators are also trying to tackle this practice in a separate bill for concert and event tickets, requiring sellers to list the full price, including fees, upfront on their websites. The legislation was inspired by complaints from consumers who were hit with massive hidden fees when they tried to nab tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
Greenman said her bill will create more transparency for consumers on most of the products they’re purchasing.
“Folks are being nickeled and dimed by these extra fees,” she said. “This bill is an attempt to end that and create price transparency in the market.”
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
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