Illinois Fought Back Against Junk Fees. Here Is How.

While Washington dismantled consumer protections, Governor JB Pritzker built new ones — and other Democratic states are following.

Jul 23, 2026

This is part of an ongoing series on state and local Democratic leaders who are translating progressive values into specific, replicable policy. You can read the full series here.

Affordability is the defining concern of the 2026 electorate. Poll after poll confirms it. Voters will be thinking about their pocketbooks in November, and which candidates and which party they trust to address these concerns will likely determine how they vote.

It is often hard to sort out the causes of higher costs: high interest rates, tariffs, war, or corporate pricing practices. In some cases it is obvious that corporations are adding junk fees to transactions consumers thought they understood: the resort fee added at hotel checkout, the concert that sold out to automated bots before they could click, the surprise charge on last month’s credit card statement.

Roughly half of American households report little or no monthly surplus after basic expenses. For those families, the cumulative impact of junk fees is significant. What most people do not realize is that government has the tools to address these corporate practices directly.

Trump has largely abandoned the federal role in protecting consumers from these practices. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created after the 2008 financial crisis to police predatory corporate behavior, has been systematically dismantled. Dozens of enforcement actions were dropped, settlements reversed, and rules withdrawn. A report prepared by the Senate Banking Committee minority staff estimated the cost to consumers at $19 billion in the first year alone, due to the loss of protections against overdraft fees, credit card late fees, and predatory lending practices that the bureau had spent years putting in place.

Some states, led by Democrats, are filling that vacuum, and they are doing it with well-documented solutions to well-documented problems. JB Pritzker, now in his seventh year as Illinois governor, has been among the most aggressive.

Illinois is the home of State Farm Insurance. They have had enough political clout to make Illinois an outlier when it comes to controlling insurance prices. When State Farm announced a 27.2 percent average rate increase last summer, Pritzker took action. He pushed for legislation, and this spring the General Assembly passed two bills giving the state Department of Insurance authority to review and reject excessive rate increases for both homeowners and auto insurance.

His most recent legislative package addresses three additional forms of corporate extraction. The centerpiece is the Junk Fee Ban Act, signed June 25. The law makes it unlawful for any business to advertise a price that does not include all mandatory fees before taxes. Hotels may no longer add undisclosed resort fees at checkout. Food delivery and rideshare apps must show full costs before consumers pay. Ticket vendors cannot bury processing fees in the final screen. The price you see is the price you pay.

Two accompanying bills address the live events market. One bans the automated bots that sweep up tickets at scale before individual consumers can access them. Another prohibits resellers from offering tickets they do not actually possess, a practice that leaves buyers holding worthless confirmation numbers.

A fourth measure brings Buy Now, Pay Later lenders under state oversight for the first time. The use of these products has grown rapidly, particularly among younger and lower-income consumers, while operating without the disclosure requirements that apply to credit cards. Illinois now requires BNPL providers to register with the state, disclose true loan terms, limit fees, and protect consumer data. As the state’s financial regulator put it: without oversight, these products operate like high-cost lenders dressed up as modern financial tools.

Illinois is not acting alone. Democratic-led states have been the primary movers on consumer protection as Washington has retreated. California, Minnesota, Colorado, Connecticut, and others have enacted comprehensive junk fee protections over the past two years, building a growing body of state-level protections that is becoming, by default, a national consumer standard.

Junk fees and predatory pricing practices are among the rare issues where public anger crosses party lines, with strong majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents supporting legislation to address them. What Pritzker demonstrated is that government can stop corporations from taking advantage of consumers. That is the difference between a party that campaigns on affordability and one that actually delivers it.

We are planning future installments and welcome your suggestions for Democratic leaders who have successfully advanced progressive policies. All installments are collected here.

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