The Federal Communications Commission today voted to eliminate a Biden-era rule that required Internet service providers to list all of their so-called “passthrough” fees on easily accessible broadband price labels.

Instead of advertising accurate prices, ISPs like to advertise artificially low prices and then add all sorts of fees to subscribers' monthly bills. To prevent bill shock and help consumers compare prices, the FCC updated its broadband-label rules in 2023 to require that ISPs “itemize on the label all discretionary monthly fees that the provider passes through to the consumer.”

ISPs complained about the burden and complexity of listing all the passthrough fees they had chosen to charge. It would presumably be less burdensome for providers to advertise accurate prices, eliminating the need to charge additional fees and list them on the labels. But a few weeks ago, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr helped ISPs out by proposing to let them display passthrough fees in an aggregate "up to" amount instead of listing them all individually.

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The Federal Communications Commission will vote to eliminate a rule that requires Internet service providers to list all of their so-called "passthrough" fees on an easily accessible broadband price label. The FCC vote could also make the price labels themselves a bit harder for consumers to find.

ISPs routinely advertise prices much lower than those actually charged to consumers on their monthly bills. One method of raising monthly bill prices above advertised rates is to tack on fees that, ISPs claim, are used to offset charges imposed by local governments.

ISPs would be well within their rights to advertise accurate monthly prices and charge those exact prices on monthly bills. But because ISPs rarely do that, the FCC has required them to make specific price disclosures to consumers for the past decade.

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