GoKawiilThe Federal Communications Commission today voted to eliminate a Biden-era rule that required Internet service providers to list all of their so-called “passthrough” fees on easily accessible broadband price labels.
Instead of advertising accurate prices, ISPs like to advertise artificially low prices and then add all sorts of fees to subscribers’ monthly bills. To prevent bill shock and help consumers compare prices, the FCC updated its broadband-label rules in 2023 to require that ISPs “itemize on the label all discretionary monthly fees that the provider passes through to the consumer.”
ISPs complained about the burden and complexity of listing all the passthrough fees they had chosen to charge. It would presumably be less burdensome for providers to advertise accurate prices, eliminating the need to charge additional fees and list them on the labels. But a few weeks ago, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr helped ISPs out by proposing to let them display passthrough fees in an aggregate “up to” amount instead of listing them all individually.
With this change, ISPs can continue advertising inaccurate prices as long as they provide the total amount of passthrough fees on broadband price labels. Separating these costs from the advertised price makes it harder for consumers to find out what they will pay each month, and gives ISPs another method of raising customer bills without announcing a price increase.
As we wrote previously, Carr also proposed letting ISPs provide links to the required price labels instead of displaying the full labels prominently on ordering pages and account portals. In addition to having less information on pricing, the new labels will be a little harder for customers to find.
Fees will be described instead of listed
The proposal was approved today. It was changed a bit since it was released in draft form, but the final order is not yet public. The vote was 3-0, with Democrat Anna Gomez joining the Republican majority. Gomez described some changes made since the proposal was released in draft form.
Gomez said she would prefer to keep requiring full itemization of fees, but thanked the chairman’s office for working with her on displaying certain kinds of information in the labels. Instead of listing every fee, she said the updated labels will provide a description of fees that are remitted to state and local governments and a description of fees remitted to third parties.