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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 14, 2024 06:32 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Arvind Venkat |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Prohibiting Unfair Price Changes on Travel Service Websites |
| Recently, I was contacted by a resident of my district regarding multiple incidences of last-minute price changes for online travel service purchases, including airline ticket prices and cruise fares. Unfortunately, travel services commonly make online prices appear cheaper than they truly are, causing customers to believe they are receiving a “good deal.” However, travel services can add on additional costs or hike up the original price in an attempt to get the customer to pay more for the service as they go to finalize their purchase. These bait and switch tactics take advantage of consumers, and I believe we must take action to ensure that travel services inform customers of the true cost of the service they are purchasing and give customers time to complete their purchase at the price they expected. That is why I will be introducing legislation to prohibit a travel service, defined as any form of transportation that is available to the public for purchase through an Internet website or application, from changing the price of a service shown to the consumer for at least 30 minutes from when the consumer first visits the Internet website. If the travel service must alter the price of a service during this time, they must notify consumers visiting the website of any price change at least 5 minutes before the 30-minute period expires. My legislation will hold travel services accountable for not informing customers of the true costs of services and will ensure that consumers are properly notified should any prices change on the travels service’s website. Bottomline, Pennsylvania consumers need to be informed about the true costs of their purchases, and I believe they should always have the right to pay for a service as it was originally advertised. Therefore, we must take these steps to ensure that travel services are no longer able to profit off consumers through these deceptive price changes. Please join me in supporting this legislation to increase price transparency for consumers and prevent unfair sales practices within Pennsylvania. |
Introduced as HB2321