What you see is what you’ll pay: New law bans ‘junk’ fees on hotel bills, concert tickets, etc.

Californians can soon say goodbye to so-called junk fees, those startling charges that appear in a transaction only when a customer is about to hit “purchase.”

You know the ones: A hotel bill that ends with a vague “resort fee.” Or those concert tickets that double in price once it’s time to type in your credit card information.

On Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 478, which bans “offering a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or charges other than taxes or fees imposed by a government on the transaction.”

Also known as hidden fees or surprise fees, junk fees obscure the total cost of a transaction until it’s often too late, or too frustrating, to back out.

The new law, which will go into effect July 1, 2024, won’t necessarily make things cheaper. Businesses are allowed to set prices as they wish, but the final total must be disclosed upfront.

The bill, introduced by state Sens. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), categorizes junk fees as a form of “bait and switch advertising” and a “deceptive” business practice.

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