Junk Fees

We expose hidden charges and mandatory add-ons that inflate costs across industries.

Every year, junk fees cost Americans tens of billions of dollars.

Junk fees come in many forms. Sometimes they’re mandatory fees hidden until check-out. Other times they’re optional charges disguised as mandatory, or automatically recurring subscriptions only disclosed in fine print. From “convenience fees” to “service fees,” these practices extract billions from consumers who are tricked into paying them. According to a recent White House panel, junk fees cost Americans tens of billions of dollars every year, often obscuring the full price of purchases from consumers. KalielGold fights back with targeted litigation that challenges deceptive pricing schemes and demands transparency in how businesses present their true costs.

OUR APPROACH

Cutting through corporate double-speak to expose pricing manipulation.

We approach junk fee cases by dissecting the entire customer journey, from initial advertising through final payment, to identify where businesses mislead consumers about total costs. Website disclosures, mobile app interfaces, and checkout processes are analyzed to prove when fees are improperly hidden or misrepresented. Our team collaborates with consumer behavior experts and pricing analysts to demonstrate how these schemes exploit psychological biases and create artificial urgency. We build cases that don’t just seek refunds, but force businesses to advertise honest, all-inclusive pricing from the start.

Notable Cases

Deceptive membership fee class action

Barbanell v. One Medical, Case No.: CGC-18-566232 (San Francisco Cnty. Super. Ct., Cal.)

Class action alleging One Medical misrepresented the nature of its annual membership fee, resulting in an $11.5 million settlement on behalf of California consumers.

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