EU regulators chase hidden fees case by case. The UK put all-in prices into law

Hidden fees are written into law in Britain and, for two industries, in the United States. In the European Union, regulators still fight them one company at a time. On 28 October, Poland’s consumer watchdog UOKiK charged Holiday Park & Resort, a chain of holiday cottages. It says a deposit, a service fee and utility bills could add more than 1,000 zloty to one stay. Sometimes that was over half the total cost.

UOKiK followed one Holiday Park booking from 88 zloty to 6,256

The watchdog tested a seven-night summer stay for three guests in a cottage with a garden. The first price on screen was 88.78 zloty per person per night. It looked low because the system divided the cost by nine guests, not three.

At the next step the rate rose to 99.30 zloty, still for nine people. Cleaning for 249.99 zloty appeared as an optional “upgrade”. The company’s own rules make it mandatory. The garden added 413 zloty, or 59 zloty a day.

The screen then showed a total of 6,255.99 zloty. Above it, in larger type, stood a different number: 90.30 zloty. Only at the last step did small, pale text say the total left out an 899 zloty deposit. It also left out a service fee of 4.99 zloty per person per day in summer. The deposit is refundable.

Electricity, gas, water and sewage were billed at check-out. The online booking never mentioned them. Sample bills for five or six days ran from about 100 to over 200 zloty. UOKiK also questions rules that let the company change bookings already made. These are charges, not a final decision. The possible fine is up to 10% of annual turnover for each practice.

Legimi and Travelplanet faced UOKiK over the same kind of extra charge

Two days earlier, on 26 October, UOKiK charged Legimi, a Polish e-book subscription service. In October 2024 Legimi moved part of its library into a “Club Catalogue”. Each title there costs an extra 14.99 zloty. The change also hit people who had paid for their plan in advance. UOKiK also says the “Order” button for a three-day free trial did not warn that a paid plan follows.

Courts in other EU countries look at mid-contract price changes too. Germany’s top civil court recently voided Amazon’s Prime price clause, which the company had used to raise the fee in 2022.

In April 2026 UOKiK fined the travel site Travelplanet.pl 647,000 zloty. During one three-week check, 47 of 100 trips cost more on the offer page than in search results. The average gap was 329 zloty per person. A trip to Dubai jumped from 4,293 to 9,023 zloty. Some prices also left out a mandatory travel guarantee fund fee. The decision is not final and can be appealed in court. UOKiK also acts against fake reviews, as in recent EU cases against fake product test sites.

UOKiK, the CMA and the FTC put the fee rule in different places

UOKiK works with Poland’s 2007 act on unfair market practices. It copies the EU’s 2005 Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the bloc’s main rulebook against misleading sales. An offer must show the price with taxes and any extra transport, delivery or postal charges. Cleaning, service and utility fees are not named. So the office has to show, case by case, that revealing them late misleads buyers. The same directive was amended to ban generic green claims from 27 September, but its price rule stayed as it was.

The CMA, Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority, got new powers in April 2025 under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. Its guidance of 7 January 2026 says the headline price must normally include every mandatory charge. On fees shown apart, it says: “Providing them separately will not normally be enough to comply with the law.” In April 2026 the CMA fined AA and BSM driving schools £4.2 million. They had hidden a £3 booking fee from more than 80,000 learners. Refunds came to about £760,000.

The FTC, the US Federal Trade Commission, has applied its fees rule since 12 May 2025. It covers only live-event tickets and short-term lodging, such as hotels and holiday rentals. Firms that advertise a price must show the total, with mandatory fees, up front. The rule does not ban any fee or cap its size. The FTC also goes after price gaps in other trades. It sued Dollar General over shelf and coupon prices.

The European Commission leaves fines to national watchdogs. It coordinates their joint checks, called sweeps, and drafts new law. For now, no EU rule says in plain words that a service fee or cleaning fee belongs in the first price shown.

EU watchdogs found late fees at one in ten of 314 online shops

The latest sweep results came on 26 March 2026. Authorities from 23 EU countries, Iceland and Norway checked 314 online traders. One in ten added fees such as shipping or service charges late in the purchase. Problems with discounts were more common: 30% showed them incorrectly. Another 36% added optional items to the basket, and 40% of those did so without clear consent.

The Commission’s own figures show the cost. Its fitness check of October 2024 put consumer harm from problem online practices at €7.9 billion a year. It called that figure conservative. In its 2025 consultation, 69% of respondents said they had struggled to cancel an online contract. Another 62% had seen a subscription renewed without a reminder.

Brussels plans its Digital Fairness Act for mid-November

The Digital Fairness Act is the Commission’s planned law on online consumer protection. The European Parliament’s research service wrote on 5 October that it is expected in mid-November 2026. Its form is still open: a regulation, a directive or part of a wider package. The briefing does not say whether it will cover drip pricing, the practice of adding fees step by step.

The briefing does record two related positions. The Commission has said that changing a price during booking, after payment has started, may break current EU rules. In July 2026 the Parliament urged a look at banning dynamic pricing for live sport and cultural events.

Until the proposal lands, an EU shop that adds a mandatory fee late is judged under 2005 rules. Each country decides its own cases. A British shop doing the same faces a fine of up to 10% of global turnover. The question for mid-November is whether Brussels copies the British all-in price rule or leaves it to cases like Holiday Park.