6 ms·
Mamdani Targets Junk Fees and Hidden Charges in Two Executive Orders
- phantom784 9mo agohttps://archive.is/4R8da https://archive.is/4R8da
- RankingMember 9mo agoAn encouraging start! I'm still chapped about Lina's "Click to Cancel" being sidelined after the administration change, so it's nice to see it being moved forward somewhere.
- kg 9mo agoIt's interesting that 'banning junk fees and hidden charges' is part of a leftist political agenda according to this article: > Protecting consumers, including renters, appears be a large part of Mr. Mamdani’s early agenda as mayor. The actions of Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, appear so far to indicate a willingness to govern based on a leftist political agenda. Has the overton window just shifted so much that not wanting to get screwed by greedy con artists is communist now? Or is the perspective of the NYT's coverage skewed because they don't like this guy? It's weird. According to this same article, the efforts seem to be a continuation of existing work that was happening before he got elected: > In June, Letitia James, the attorney general, announced a $600,000 settlement with Equinox Group over the difficulty of ending a membership. Last month, she joined a multistate coalition that filed suit against Uber regarding the difficulty of canceling subscriptions.
- chung8123 9mo agoAgendas are all how you frame them and a lot of time statements at a high-level can be misconstrued. The left and right actually agree on a lot at a high-level but do not agree on how to tackle the problem.
- kube-system 9mo ago> Has the overton window just shifted so much that not wanting to get screwed by greedy con artists is communist now? In the context of US politics, progressive politics have been often labelled "communist" for around 100 years. > According to this same article, the efforts seem to be a continuation of existing work that was happening before he got elected Mamdani is not the first progressive politician in NYC
- lm28469 9mo ago> Has the overton window just shifted so much that not wanting to get screwed by greedy con artists is communist now? I've seen this dude described as an "islamo-communist" more than once in different countries' medias (not fringe medias). I presume "islamist" because muslim, and "communist" because he's left of the center-right. You can't really talk with these people anyways, they're too far gone
- yunnpp 9mo agoAt the gym, which bombards us with propaganda on the telescreens, I saw him called a "jihadist communist". It was either Fox News or Newsmax. It's like they looked for the scariest word salad that would trigger their boomer audience. I also doubt either channel can define communism or jihad correctly.
- krapp 9mo agoAmericans called Joe Biden a communist. They called Barack Obama a communist. Even Hillary Clinton. "Communist" in American political parlance is just a synonym for "Democrat" and has been since the days of the New Deal.
- 9mo ago
- everdrive 9mo agoIs this similar to an executive order from a president? ie, it's symbolic but not very durable, and would have been better as a law?
- RankingMember 9mo agoYou're right, but I see these types of orders as an effective way to build public support (assuming they're successful and popular) and make codified changes later on more likely.
- codyb 9mo agoDidn't work for Biden He was incredibly successful at tackling hidden charges, and dark patterns, and extra fees tacked on after the fact The country ate alive the nicest, most well meaning president we've ever actually had as far as I can tell Although of course he was up against every media company in the nation, all, including social media, controlled by about... 8 people or whatever
- nashashmi 9mo agoBiden was nice. It turned out his screw up in his debate was that he came back from a foreign trip and was under some medication. He was tired on stage. Full blame goes to this team who did not call the debate off when they should have. (yes i judge in my arm chair)
- the__alchemist 9mo agoFuck yes. Does anyone know what is the appropriate (USA) government level for this? I.e., could something similar to implemented in State or Federal legislatures?
- mulmen 9mo agoReasonable people have been disagreeing on that since at least the late 18th century. In a practical sense the right place is wherever it gets passed. If the United States is an experiment every legal jurisdiction is a laboratory.
- pkaye 9mo agoYes it can be done on the state level. California passes consumer protection laws all the time. Some of the recent ones are listed here. The problems is people are waiting for Congress or the President to do something when it could be enacted at the state level first and when there are enough support and consensus could be passed by Congress. https://www.kcra.com/article/new-california-laws-in-2026-january-1/69813485 https://www.kcra.com/article/new-california-laws-in-2026-jan...
- rich_sasha 9mo agoThat's what you get when you elect a communist. What's next... cancellation fees, delivery app dark patterns, affordable housing??? We're doomed. (Not an American, just an attempt at satire)
- Workaccount2 9mo agoMake an order that any service which holds your money for spending with them (starbucks app, giftcards, ez-pass) has to pay you interest at the benchmark rate (or BM - 0.25%, something small). It's such a money maker but no one complains because they either don't know it's happening or don't care enough to say something. But 1 million people with $10 in their account will generate $1,000/day in free money for the holder.
- gruez 9mo ago>has to pay you interest at the benchmark rate (or BM - 0.25%, something small). Deposit accounts at most banks pay you less than that, so it's unclear why you'd want gift cards to pay that much. Not to mention that turning gift cards into essentially bank accounts is going to create even more issues. Remember how we have to remind people how paypal isn't a bank? Or how would you calculate income taxes from the interest?
- moooo99 9mo ago> Not to mention that turning gift cards into essentially bank accounts is going to create even more issues. Remember how we have to remind people how paypal isn't a bank? I would have thought the intention with such regulation as proposed by the original commenter would be that apps specifically stop offering such functionality?
- gruez 9mo agoThen why not just ban gift cards outright?
- mulmen 9mo agoBecause they’re useful and well liked by consumers?
- lxgr 9mo agoWho actually likes gift cards, as in, would still use them despite better alternatives existing? If giving/receiving cash wasn't already illegal or socially unacceptable, gift card issuers would have started lobbying for that yesterday. Other than that original use case, many people use them as a form of poorly functional digital cash (since it's not fungible across issuers) that really ought to exist natively in a currency these days.
- culi 9mo agoThis man has quite possibly talked to more constituents during his campaign than any other campaign in US history. An executive order to ban gyms from making it difficult to cancel a membership sounds like exactly "what the people want". Almost stereotypically so
- uoaei 9mo agoThere are dozens of low-hanging fruit to appease the citizenry that have been explained away as nonviable by talking heads and PR departments for decades. I'm excited to see just how much corporate hand-wringing is exposed as the selfish money-grubbing anti-social behavior that it is.
- SpicyLemonZest 9mo agoI'm interested to see too, but I hope you won't let your excitement lead you to forgetting that we need to check later whether the measures accomplish their goals before declaring victory. The talking head position was never that it's impossible for a politician to declare they don't like junk fees.
- xg15 9mo agoAs we should with conservative or "pro-business" politicians. But what goals specifically do you mean here?
- mschuster91 9mo ago> But what goals specifically do you mean here? The complaint from the people is "it's difficult to cancel a gym membership". A metric to judge the success of a policy tackling that could be the # of complaints to consumer protection associations, authorities, politicians, or bank chargebacks.
- samrus 9mo agoYeah. Another way to collect that metric is surveying people to ask them if cancelling their gym membership was easier I do get the previous commenters hesitance though. It feels like you are holding mambani to a higher stnadard that anyone in america has held corporation in regard to something like the blatant wage theft they commit. Seems a bit of selective enforcement
- unmole 9mo ago[flagged]
- uoaei 9mo agoJunk fees are a massive talking point in tech business, particularly gig work companies.
- b40d-48b2-979e 9mo agoI don't see any interesting new phenomenon. Sarcastically, a politician serving their constituents rather than themself.
- amriksohata 9mo agohttps://x.com/OnTheNewsBeat/status/1923610786683027484 https://x.com/OnTheNewsBeat/status/1923610786683027484
- mschuster91 9mo agoFull text for the orders: Junk Fees - Executive Order 09: https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/01/executive-order-09 https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/01/executive-ord... Subscription Traps: https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/01/executive-order-10 https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/01/executive-ord...