New UK rules banning ‘drip pricing’ could affect companies like Ryanair and easyJet

As a result of the King’s Speech’s speech, budget airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair look set to be banned from including ‘hidden costs’ in airline ticket prices.

On Tuesday, November 7, King Charles III announced that Rishi Sunak intended to take action against the so-called ‘drip pricing’ techniques used by various companies to attract customers to purchase products online.

This relates to the policy of advertising an item or service for a lower price and then adding ‘extras’ as the customer continues the online booking process.

Birmingham Live reported that easyJet charged as much as £62.84 extra for hidden costs according to a study carried out by netvouchercodes.co.uk. Similarly, Ryanair were found to have ‘hidden fees’ included in final ticket prices of around £63.

The Prime Minister’s move was welcomed by Scott Dixon. It was ‘long overdue’ on what the consumer expert described as an ‘insidious practice which breaches consumer laws’.

‘These are often presented past the halfway point of the checkout process and many are dripped at the end. This is done deliberately as airlines and other providers know that consumers are more likely to accept it, rather than reject it if it was transparent from the outset’, Dixon explained.

What did the consumer watchdog Which? have to say?

According to the consumer watchdog Which?, approximately 86 per cent of shoppers believed that ‘drip-pricing’ practices were a ‘sneaky’ way of operating.

‘To help consumers make informed choices, all mandatory charges must be included in the upfront price and firms must make clear any extra optional fees at the start of the process’, insisted Rocio Concha from Which?.

An estimated 8.5 million consumers had bought something in the last year that they either regretted or really did not need or want because of ‘deceptive’ pricing said Citizens Advice.

After experiencing a record summer demand that included the incorporation of higher prices to offset rising fuel costs, Ryanair posted a 59 per cent jump in first-half earnings last week.