Washington, D.C. — Following news that the Virginia State Senate has unanimously passed SB1212, a law banning deceptive, mandatory junk fees, the American Economic Liberties Project officially announced the re-launch of its “End Junk Fees“ campaign—which supported more than a dozen junk fee bans in 2024, including a bill signed into law in Minnesota—for the 2025 legislative session. Already, legislators in seven states have introduced bills in 2025 to implement broad bans on mandatory, undisclosed junk fees.

“We’re excited to kick off our 2025 End Junk Fees campaign. Given the Virginia Senate’s unanimous vote to pass Sen. Stella Pekarsky’s bill, this movement has more momentum than ever,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “In 2024, we supported lawmakers in more than a dozen states as they introduced and advanced bills to ban junk fees, with Minnesota signing its bill into law. Junk fees remain as much of a frustration and a burden on families’ pocketbooks in the new year, and we’ll be redoubling our efforts to help state lawmakers throw them in the trash.”

Junk fees cost the average American family more than $3,000 per year—amounting to a massive wealth transfer from local communities to corporate profits. While the Biden FTC and CFPB took important regulatory actions to rein in junk fees at the federal level, culminating with the FTC’s finalized rule to ban junk fees in hospitality and live events (which is set to take effect this year), state lawmakers are leading the way with durable legislative solutions to protect their own communities across all industries. Already in the 2025 legislative session, bills to ban some or all junk fees have been introduced in Arizona, Virginia, Hawaii, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Colorado, and Rhode Island.

The End Junk Fees campaign provides research and model legislation to guide lawmakers through the junk fee issue and possibilities for addressing it, as well as original multi-state polling in collaboration with Lake Research Partners attesting to the broad-based support for legislative action. The campaign also elevates the voices of concerned citizens, soliciting their junk fee stories and connecting them to their state representatives to demand action.

Learn more about the End Junk Fees campaign 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.