I think these types of fees happen often, are discovered, then they are refunded. This even happened with me with a government agency where we had a collegial r

I think these types of fees happen often, are discovered, then they are refunded. This even happened with me with a government agency where we had a collegial relationship. The administrator found out we had paid for data that was supposed to be public, told us no one was authorized to impose a fee, and joked that they must have wanted to throw an office party or something. He was actually very serious about apologizing and refunding the fees, but it wasn’t a big deal. It becomes a problem when people take the attitude that what’s done is done. The fees should be refunded, at least from the consultants back into the public purse, and they should take much greater precautions when it comes to “public private partnerships” and monetizing access to public land.