For a lot of goods now, there is a hidden required fee. Restaurants adding a gratuity or “cost increase” fee to their listed prices. Airlines/hotels having many fees that you must pay to fly at all that are not necessarily listed online. The cable/phone company selling you service, then sending a bill with a required extra fee that was not disclosed. Or worse, making you sign to a 12 month contract, and then they add extra fees and raise the rates. (so breaking the contrast in their favor—something that their fine print that you were forced to agree to, or go to arbitration, no doubt allows) Car dealerships are the worst of all—disclosing one price, wasting a consumer’s time, then adding some or many fees after you have spent time at their dealership test driving the vehicle, traveling to the dealership, waiting on the “back office to crunch the numbers”. These delays are on purpose. They know if you have spent some of your irreplaceable time to try to buy a car, you’re more likely to agree to that extra $300 “window etching” charge they forgot to disclose.
Unbundling. I would say this is only relevant if the unbundled item is required to use the product at all. Such as printer ink. They should probably be forced to disclose the full cost to the end of the warranty period or something similar.
I think you are confusing 2 issues.
For a lot of goods now, there is a hidden required fee. Restaurants adding a gratuity or “cost increase” fee to their listed prices. Airlines/hotels having many fees that you must pay to fly at all that are not necessarily listed online. The cable/phone company selling you service, then sending a bill with a required extra fee that was not disclosed. Or worse, making you sign to a 12 month contract, and then they add extra fees and raise the rates. (so breaking the contrast in their favor—something that their fine print that you were forced to agree to, or go to arbitration, no doubt allows) Car dealerships are the worst of all—disclosing one price, wasting a consumer’s time, then adding some or many fees after you have spent time at their dealership test driving the vehicle, traveling to the dealership, waiting on the “back office to crunch the numbers”. These delays are on purpose. They know if you have spent some of your irreplaceable time to try to buy a car, you’re more likely to agree to that extra $300 “window etching” charge they forgot to disclose.
Unbundling. I would say this is only relevant if the unbundled item is required to use the product at all. Such as printer ink. They should probably be forced to disclose the full cost to the end of the warranty period or something similar.