While we can blame inflation for the increased cost of many services and products, there's another cause lurking in the shadows—or rather, in the fine print of many contracts and invoices: junk fees.

Junk fees are fees designed to confuse, deceive or take advantage of consumers. These unnecessary charges inflate costs of consumer goods and services, and are often hidden or not disclosed to consumers at the outset. These junk fees predominantly appear in the following forms:

• Mandatory fees that conceal the total price of a product or service;
• Unexpected post-purchase fees;
• Predatory or exploitative fees; and
• Fraudulent or otherwise misrepresented fees.

The White House has made fighting junk fees a priority. During a meeting of the White House Competition Council in September 2022, President Joe Biden called on federal agencies to reduce or eliminate junk fees. In October 2022, the White House laid out in a blog post what it believes junk fees are, the economic issues they cause, and the actions the Biden administration is taking to eliminate them. The White House also recently released a guide for states about how to address junk fees through enforcement and legislation. And to top it off, Biden discussed junk fees in his 2023 State of the Union address.