This kind of thing makes me glad not to be an American consumer.
The article cites the example of CenturyLink's "Internet Cost Recovery Fee", which is a $4/mo fee not listed in your price that is supposed to cover CenturyLink's costs of network expansion. I don't know how you can argue this is not part of the rate which CenturyLink themselves are charging for the service. Some of the other examples, like Comcast's passing on of government fees outside of the headline price I could understand as political differences, the same way you do not include sales tax in advertised prices (which annoys me every time I'm in the US), but I don't see how the "Internet Cost Recovery Fee" is not actionable fraudulent advertising.
In comparison, my ISP's advertised price is €80/mo. I pay €80/mo. In exchange, I get 400mbit/s broadband with no extra fees. This is technically a business plan, but the only extra price weirdness for consumer plans is the 6 month introductory rate.
The article cites the example of CenturyLink's "Internet Cost Recovery Fee", which is a $4/mo fee not listed in your price that is supposed to cover CenturyLink's costs of network expansion. I don't know how you can argue this is not part of the rate which CenturyLink themselves are charging for the service. Some of the other examples, like Comcast's passing on of government fees outside of the headline price I could understand as political differences, the same way you do not include sales tax in advertised prices (which annoys me every time I'm in the US), but I don't see how the "Internet Cost Recovery Fee" is not actionable fraudulent advertising.
In comparison, my ISP's advertised price is €80/mo. I pay €80/mo. In exchange, I get 400mbit/s broadband with no extra fees. This is technically a business plan, but the only extra price weirdness for consumer plans is the 6 month introductory rate.