Originally Posted by
seat38a
Whats the difference between that and finding out what your sales tax is at the register at Nordstroms or whatever? When you look at the menu at a restaurant, does it have the tax and tip included price? Unless the laws are changed and or the courts say otherwise, its not illegal! Airlines did the exact same thing until the law was changed, but before that it wasn't illegal for them.
It has to do with price transparency and price discovery, and no I am not a big fan of the ambiguous US system with hidden cost associated with purchase of good and services manifested itself as: resort fees, tip etc.
In other words because the actual price is not clearly communicated (or published), this practice creates asymmetric information which violates one of assumption, in the classical micro economic sense, for a functioning free market.
This violation creates market imperfections and less competition.
To change this practice via legislation should be viewed in the same manner as that the US have laws against cartels etc, i.e. sometimes you need to legislate to minimize the effect of market imperfections ....