Washington, D.C — As junk fees become ubiquitous across the economy and cost Americans tens of billions of dollars per year, the American Economic Liberties Project today announced a new campaign, “End Junk Fees“, to promote state-level junk fee legislation in statehouses across the country. The campaign was announced at an Economic Liberties event featuring state representatives Analise Ortiz (AZ) and Nick Pisciottano (PA), and National Economic Council Deputy Director John Donenberg.

“Junk fees cost the average American family over $3,000 per year—amounting to a massive wealth transfer from local communities to corporate profits,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “While the Biden Administration, FTC and CFPB have taken important regulatory actions to rein in junk fees at the federal level, state lawmakers are leading the way with durable legislative solutions to protect their own communities. From Hawaii to New York, we have already seen five state-level bills to eliminate hidden junk fees in the current legislative session alone. Our new campaign will provide resources and advocacy support to help state-level officials across the country finally throw junk fees in the trash.”

“Federal and state efforts in this area can and should complement each other,” said Jon Donenberg, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. “As we aim to set clear federal standards, state legislative efforts can also expand the consumer protections quickly and efficiently so that consumers can see the benefits right away and so that state law enforcement officials have the authorities they need to identify where companies are saddling consumers with junk fees and hold them accountable.”

“We really need to make sure we have stakeholders at the table who are keeping the pressure on elected officials to see this through to fruition,” said Arizona State Rep. Analise Ortiz during her remarks. “It should not just be a headline, we need to actually make this happen, and save people money…And at a time like this, every dollar counts for Arizona families. This is a concept people can really wrap their heads around and I’ve been personally impacted by, and I think there’s wide bipartisan support for standing up to corporations.”

“When my constituents who walk in who aren’t plugged into policy or politics on a daily basis, I understand that they feel ripped off by the junk fees and they hate it,” said Pennsylvania State Rep. Nick Pisciottano at the event. “Our idea was that basically, if we forced these fees to be disclosed on the front end, you really disincentivize the use of fees at all.”

In just the first two weeks of January, state lawmakers have introduced junk fee legislation in five states: New York, Arizona, Virginia, Hawaii, and Alaska. The The End Junk Fees campaign seeks to build this momentum into widespread adoption of new laws in several ways. First, it provides research and model legislation to guide lawmakers through the junk fee issue and possibilities for addressing it. The campaign also elevates the voices of concerned citizens, soliciting their junk fee stories and connecting them to their state representatives to to demand action. Original multi-state polling on voter concerns regarding junk fees is forthcoming in February.

Learn more about the End Junk Fees campaign here.

Watch the full event, How States Can Throw Junk Fees in the Trash, here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.