In submitting comments this week to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), asking that it neither eliminate nor relax enforcement of its ‘One-Price Policy,’ the…
In submitting comments this week to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), asking that it neither eliminate nor relax enforcement of its ‘One-Price Policy,’ the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) suggested that the DOT has a “golden opportunity” to produce a user-friendly One-Price Policy that consumers, airlines and travel agents can understand.
The ‘One-Price Policy’ was established by the DOT in 1984 with the intent of clarifying what is and is not a deceptive price advertisement. The policy mandates how airfares are advertised, allowing only for the exclusion from the total price of fees that are just paid to governments and those paid for agency services that are not part of the transportation service. Everything else, including fuel surcharges, must be incorporated into the quoted price. The DOT is now proposing that changes to the policy be made on the grounds that (1) a long time has passed since the original rule was adopted, and (2) electronic communications have led to changes in (a) marketing practices and (b) consumer sophistication. (70 Fed. Reg. 73961-73962).
ASTA is opposing any relaxation or elimination of the rule on grounds that there is no evidence that suggests a change is warranted or that the policy has failed to accomplish its purpose. In its comments, ASTA wrote:
While it is true that more than 20 years have passed since 1984, relatively little time has passed since the Department’s last batch of formal interpretations of the policy, and exceptions to it. … The passage of time, by itself, is therefore no warrant for a radical change of policy direction now.
There is equally little question that the Internet and e-mail have led to significant changes in the way marketing information is communicated, that fact by itself has no necessary connection to the deception, or not, of particular forms or styles of communication. That which was misleading in the newspaper will almost certainly be just as misleading when sent by e-mail or when posted on a Web site.
Finally, we are not aware of the basis for the Department’s assertion that consumers are more sophisticated now than they were, say, five years ago, or even 20 years ago for that matter. Many consumers certainly have acquired new facility with electronic communications, but possession of that skill does not imply that they are less gullible or less easily confused. If “consumer sophistication” is to be the lynchpin of a radical new policy, something more than a bald assertion of its existence is required.
Rather than dramatically altering the policy, ASTA instead recommends that “the Department add another express policy … to the effect that (1) once codified in the regulations, there will be no changes to the One-Price Policy without notice and opportunity for industry and consumer comment under standard rule-making procedures, (2) enforcement action under the One-Price Policy will not occur until rule-making procedures have been completed to add new elements to the policy statement.”
This change, ASTA believes, “will allow everyone to know where they stand.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
