Advocates for a bill to crack down on junk fees are disappointed that the bill failed at the last minute as the General Assembly session ended.
Anyone who's ever ordered a $6 hamburger but ended up with a $17 bill knows how junk fees can be misleading and expensive. That's why Senator Stella Pekarsky introduced a bill to make sure DoorDash and StubHub weren't loading down customers with extra charges. Her bill died at the very end of the General Assembly session when some House Democrats did not support it.
"There was also very, very, very heavy lobbying by a very small number of corporate lobbyists, and they were there till the very end," she says. "They did not give reasons why. They were just against the bill."
Jay Speer at the Virginia Poverty Law Center says groups like the Virginia Chamber of Commerce should have supported the bill instead of lobbying against it.
"It really puzzles me why they wouldn't support this bill, which is good for consumers and it's really good for businesses that are upfront about what they charge people," Speer says. "And it seems to me the business community ought to support this kind of good, ethical behavior."
Business groups argue that more regulation would be bad for the bottom line. But Pekarsky says she'll be back at it next year, and she says she hopes she can persuade House Democrats to support it.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
