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Consumer Reports Launches “What the Fee?!” Campaign at Comcast Headquarters

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Group Delivers More than 100,000 Petition Signatures Calling on Cable Industry to Eliminate Fees

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Consumer Reports, the nonprofit membership organization, today held an event in Philadelphia outside the corporate headquarters of Comcast. The consumer group delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures calling on the company, and the entire cable industry,  to eliminate hidden fees and clearly advertise the full price of their service so that consumers can effectively comparison shop. The event is the launch of Consumer Reports’ “What the Fee?!” campaign, an organization-wide effort to highlight surprising fees and charges across industries—and help consumers fight back.

“With the proliferation of add-on fees, it’s nearly impossible for consumers to find out the full cost of a cable package before they get locked into a contract — and cable companies count on this,” said Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel for Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports. “These confusing, often misleadingly-named charges continue to drive up consumer bills, even if you lock in a promotional rate. That’s why we, along with the more than 100,000 consumers who signed our petition, are calling on Comcast — and the entire cable industry — to do right by their customers and eliminate these hidden fees.”

After asking consumers to share their experiences with add-on fees, Consumer Reports received an overwhelming amount of complaints about the fees imposed by the cable industry, with Comcast’s Xfinity service receiving the most complaints. Additional add-on charges, such as “broadcast TV fees” and “regional sports fees,” are inflating consumers’ cable bills each month, with some of these fees increasing as much as 50 percent per year.

 To learn more about the What the Fee?! campaign and share your own experience with fees, visit www.WhatTheFee.com.

PLEASE NOTE: Representatives from Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports, and local consumers will be available for media interviews on Wednesday.  To arrange an interview, contact Kara Kelber at (240) 401-7109 (cell) or kara.kelber@consumer.org.