MOORE’S SUMMARY: Gov. JB Pritzker will sign four bills on Wednesday aimed at protecting Illinois consumers from hidden ‘junk’ fees, deceptive ticketing practices and other ‘nickel-and-dime’ practices.
WHAT BILLS? Headlining the package is House Bill 228, a long-sought ban on junk fees, which would make it unlawful for any business to advertise, display or offer a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or surcharges before taxes.
This would ban, for example, hotels from adding undisclosed “resort fees” at checkout or ticket vendors and resellers from adding processing fees at the end of a transaction. It would also apply to restaurants and food delivery and rideshare platforms.
House Bill 4984 would prohibit ticket resellers from selling, listing or advertising tickets unless they have possession of them at the time they are offered for sale. This ‘ghost ticketing’ can often lead to consumers paying inflated prices and ultimately be left without tickets to the event they planned to attend.
Senate Bill 318 would prohibit the use of bots or multiple accounts to purchase more event tickets than the sale allows. The seller would be responsible for reporting instances to the state attorney general.
Ticket selling platforms, Ticketmaster in particular, have been scrutinized in recent years for operating as a monopoly and allowing bots and “scalpers” to mass-purchase tickets and resell them at inflated prices. Violators could be fined up to $2,000 per offense.
And House Bill 3561 would make it unlawful for someone to act as a buy-now-pay-later lender without registering with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
‘GOODBYE TO JUNK FEES’: “Illinois is saying goodbye to junk fees once and for all, addressing abuses in the ticketing marketplace, and fighting for greater oversight and consumer protections,” Pritzker said in a statement. “I’m proud to sign a slate of bills that cuts costs for working families while advancing transparency, fairness, and accountability on behalf of Illinoisans.”
WHY IT MATTERS: It’s an election year and cost-of-living is the top issue on voters’ minds. Budget constraints prevented Pritzker and supermajority legislative Democrats from offering as much tax relief as the nearly $2 billion they dangled in 2022.
As a result, Pritzker has leaned into his long-running consumer protection streak, banking that voters will appreciate the reining in of pesky, nickel-and-dime practices as part of a broader affordability agenda.
Pritzker also championed legislation that would give Illinois Department of Insurance authority to review and approve rates for homeowners and automobile insurance and prohibit companies from shifting the cost of losses in other states onto Illinois consumers.
The timing of the legislative flurry is convenient — Pritzker faces voters in November. That said, many of the measures, from the junk fee ban and insurance reform, have been multi-year efforts.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: The venue for Pritzker’s bill signing is a fitting one: Concord Music Hall in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.
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