As Americans grapple with rising costs at the pump, the grocery store, and now the airport, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed a rule this July that would allow airlines to hike prices even further by deceiving consumers about the total cost of their flights. The rule would let airlines abandon a fifteen-year-old requirement that the total price of a flight be displayed more prominently than add-on charges, and would rescind nine DOT guidances dating back to 1994 that prohibit specific unfair and deceptive pricing practices.
In response, the Center, on behalf of a quintet of organizations representing low-income consumers, submitted a comment letter to the DOT urging withdrawal of that proposed rule rolling back airline fare-disclosure protections.
Among other things, the comment argues the Department has offered no meaningful justification or cost-benefit analysis for such a significant change, and that it failed to weigh the impact on consumers generally and on vulnerable consumers in particular. Displaying multiple undifferentiated numbers instead of a single total fare could pose real burdens, not just momentary confusion, for older consumers, those less comfortable with technology, and consumers with visual impairments or other disabilities.
The Center's comment also calls on the Department to ground any future rulemaking in its statutory mandate to prevent, not enable, unfair and deceptive airline practices, with adequate time for comment and decisions grounded in reliable data and reasoned analysis, as the law requires.