AIRLINES FOR AMERICA SUPPLEMENTS ITS REGULATORY REVIEW FILING; TAKES AIM AT FULL FARE ADVERTISING RULE
April 5, 2018
On March 15, A4A supplemented its filing in before the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT or the Department) in the Regulatory Review docket (Docket DOT-OST-2017-0069) in order to specifically target DOT’s Full Fare Advertising rule, and to provide additional justifications as to why that rule is unnecessary to protect consumers, harms competition, and should be repealed. A4A argues that the rule, which prohibits airlines from advertising airfares without including all government-imposed fees and taxes in the advertised fare, is not needed, improper, and a departure from established Federal Trade Commission policy and practice, on which DOT’s consumer protection regime is based. The 211-page supplemental filing also calls into question DOT’s penchant for regulating through guidance documents and “Frequently Asked Questions,” which are not adopted via a statutorily authorized notice-and-comment rulemaking process or by any other mechanism whereby the public is notified and allowed to provide input. A4A calls for DOT to rescind the “overreaching regulation and related guidance documents” and revert to its long-standing prior policy, which was in place for decades, and allow airlines to separately advertise the base fare and government-imposed fees and taxes. A4A argues:
- The Full Fare Advertising rule subjects airlines to different advertising requirements than nearly all other businesses and industries in America, including competing modes of transportation;
- DOT adopted the Full Fare Advertising rule without any meaningful evidence of consumer confusion under prior DOT policy and premised the rule on a deeply flawed cost-benefit analysis;
- DOT’s intrusive regulation of price advertising is very different from the FTC’s policy, which allows sellers to advertise base prices without including taxes; and
- The Full Fare Advertising rule’s overly prescriptive advertising requirements inhibit airlines from clearly informing the public of the true burden of government taxation on air transportation.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6665).
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