The advertised price is the offer.

A price is a promise about the exchange

People compare cereal, laptops, tickets, hotel rooms, software, and spare parts by the number on the offer. When that number leaves out a mandatory charge, the comparison is fictional. The buyer invests time, and the real price arrives later, when walking away feels expensive.

That pattern has a name in consumer research: drip pricing. The low number does the recruiting. The required fees do the collecting. Honest sellers who advertise the real total look more expensive in the first glance and lose the comparison they should have won.

Mandatory, optional, and the first number

• Mandatory fees belong inside the advertised price. A "service fee," "facility fee," or "processing fee" that everyone pays is part of the price.
• Optional extras stay out of the total until the buyer chooses them, and each extra has its own visible price.
• Taxes and shipping that are truly variable can be disclosed clearly before payment. If a charge is unavoidable, treat it as part of the offer.
• Unit prices let people compare different sizes. A low package price hiding a high price per unit is another way to obscure the deal.
• Subscriptions show the renewal price, the billing period, and what happens when a trial ends, before the person agrees.

What regulators have already drawn

The Federal Trade Commission's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, 16 CFR Part 464, took effect on May 12, 2025. For live-event tickets and short-term lodging, a business that displays a price must clearly disclose the total price, including mandatory fees, and display that total more prominently than most other pricing information. Misrepresenting a fee is its own violation.

The rule is specific to those industries. It is not a universal product statute. The FTC has also said that bait-and-switch pricing and deceptive fees in other industries remain subject to existing consumer-protection law, enforced case by case. The public case on this site is broader than the rule: all-in advertising should be normal for products in general, because comparison shopping only works when the first number is real.

Primary sources live on the research page, including the FTC's announcement of the rule and the regulation text. This page is not legal advice.

What good looks like

• The most prominent price is the price the buyer should use to compare.
• Shelf tags, ads, and product pages agree with each other.
• Required charges are inside that price. Optional add-ons are named and priced.
• Size, quantity, and unit price are visible when packages differ.
• Trials, renewals, and cancellation terms are stated before payment.
• A fee's name describes what it is. A mandatory charge labeled as if it were a tax or a tip is a description problem and a trust problem.

Services and healthcare need the same honesty, with extra room for scope and clinical complexity. The product case is the clean version of the principle: if everyone pays it, show it first.