The Biden administration on Monday is launching a new effort across multiple agencies and departments to crack down on corporate practices that it says wastes consumers’ time and money, such as placing unnecessary barriers on canceling subscriptions or forcing customers to wait on hold for refunds. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Biden administration on Monday is launching a new effort across multiple agencies and departments to crack down on corporate practices that it says wastes consumers’ time and money
  • Such practices, it says, include placing unnecessary barriers on canceling subscriptions or forcing customers to wait on hold for refunds
  • The new actions the administration is taking as part of the new “Time Is Money” initiative include: the Federal Trade Commision proposing a rule to require companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription
  • Senior administration officials billed the new initiative as a continuation of President Joe Biden’s determination to crack down on what he calls "junk fees"

The administration asserts that such practices often force people to give up their efforts and thus allows companies to pad their own pockets at the expense of their customers. 

“These seemingly small inconveniences don't really happen by accident, they have huge financial consequences,” White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden told reporters on a call. “They really are just taking advantage of the fact that people that are really busy, they have very crowded lives, and companies are using that fact to hold on to resources.”

“And what that means is, ultimately, consumers, the American public, is losing out,” she added. 

The new actions the administration is taking as part of the new “Time Is Money” initiative include:

  • The Federal Trade Commision proposing a rule to require companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription or membership as it is to sign up for one; 
  • A move by the Department of Transportation to require automatic cash refunds when your flight is canceled or significantly changed and you opt out of a rebooking; 
  • Enlisting the departments of Health and Human Services and Labor to call on health insurance companies to make it easier to access information or submit claims; 
  • And initiating the process through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to require companies to allow customers to access a live person on the phone with a single button. 

The administration will also look to take on companies promoting fake reviews with a proposed FTC rule that would ban them, inaccurate chatbots by issuing new rules and laying out new guidance for schools communicating with parents of students. 

Tanden and senior administration officials on the call billed the new initiative as a continuation of President Joe Biden’s determination to crack down on what he calls  junk fees – surprise or hidden fees that show up unexpectedly at the end of purchases on things like venue and concert tickets, airlines fees, hotel rooms and other goods and services. Biden has proposed rules to put a stop to such fees across a range of industries.