FCC to end Biden-era rule that forces ISPs to list all their fees
FCC to end Biden-era rule that forces ISPs to list all their fees
美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）将废除拜登政府时期要求互联网服务提供商（ISP）列出所有费用的规定
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. 美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）即将投票废除一项规定，该规定此前要求互联网服务提供商（ISP）在易于获取的宽带价格标签上列出所有所谓的“转嫁费用”（passthrough fees）。此次投票还可能导致消费者更难找到这些价格标签。
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. 互联网服务提供商通常会宣传远低于消费者每月账单实际金额的价格。提高月费的一种常用手段是附加各种费用，ISP 声称这些费用用于抵消地方政府征收的成本。ISP 完全有权宣传准确的月费并按此金额收费，但由于他们很少这样做，过去十年来，FCC 一直要求他们向消费者进行明确的价格披露。
The Biden-era FCC updated the broadband-label rules to require that ISPs “itemize on the label all discretionary monthly fees that the provider passes through to the consumer.” The change drew protest from Comcast and other ISPs that complained bitterly about the complexity of listing all the hidden fees they had chosen to charge. 拜登政府时期的 FCC 曾更新宽带标签规则，要求 ISP“在标签上逐项列出提供商转嫁给消费者的所有可自由裁量的月度费用”。这一变动引发了康卡斯特（Comcast）及其他 ISP 的抗议，他们强烈抱怨列出所有自行设定的隐藏费用过于复杂。
Under Chairman Brendan Carr, the Trump FCC has steadily whittled away at requirements imposed under Democrats. An order released in draft form last week would eliminate the requirement to itemize passthrough fees and let ISPs list them in a single “up to” amount. The “up to” amount can include both government fees and fees charged by non-government entities such as owners of utility poles. 在主席布伦丹·卡尔（Brendan Carr）的领导下，特朗普政府时期的 FCC 正在稳步削减民主党执政时期实施的监管要求。上周发布的草案命令将取消逐项列出转嫁费用的要求，允许 ISP 以单一的“最高”（up to）金额进行汇总列示。这个“最高”金额既可以包含政府收费，也可以包含电线杆所有者等非政府实体收取的费用。
“Rather than continuing to require providers to itemize ‘passthrough fees’ that can vary by location, we allow providers to display such fees in the aggregate, either as a maximum or ‘up to’ amount for the total fees applicable in any location where the service plan is offered, or as the exact total of such fees assessed in a particular location,” the FCC draft order said. FCC 的草案命令称：“我们不再要求提供商逐项列出因地区而异的‘转嫁费用’，而是允许提供商以汇总方式显示这些费用，既可以显示该服务计划覆盖区域内的最高或‘最高’总额，也可以显示特定地点收取的费用总额。”
Making price info less accessible
让价格信息变得更难获取
The order to be voted on later this month includes a few other changes that will please ISPs and their lobby groups. ISPs will be allowed to provide links to price labels instead of displaying the full labels prominently on ordering pages and account portals, and will be allowed to stop making the price-label information available in machine-readable spreadsheets. 本月晚些时候将进行投票的该命令还包含其他几项令 ISP 及其游说团体满意的变动。ISP 将被允许通过提供链接来展示价格标签，而无需在订购页面和账户门户网站上显著展示完整标签；同时，他们也不再需要提供机器可读的电子表格格式的价格标签信息。
The FCC is also relaxing the requirement that price information be available over the phone. The FCC said the change will “allow phone sales representatives to present label information conversationally, as a summary of key label fields, rather than require verbatim recitation.” FCC 还放宽了通过电话提供价格信息的要求。FCC 表示，这一变动将“允许电话销售代表以对话形式介绍标签信息，即概述关键标签字段，而无需逐字背诵”。
The changes have been in the works since October 2025, when the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to let the public submit comments on the proposals. The outcome of that process is the draft order, which will be voted on at the FCC’s July 22 meeting and take effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register. 这些变动自 2025 年 10 月起就开始酝酿，当时 FCC 发布了拟议规则制定通知，允许公众对提案提交意见。该过程的产物便是这份草案命令，它将于 7 月 22 日的 FCC 会议上进行投票，并在《联邦公报》发布 30 天后生效。
Junk fees, hidden charges
垃圾费用与隐藏收费
A planned change mentioned earlier in this article will likely result in fewer consumers seeing the price labels at all. Instead of displaying the full label at the point of sale and in each customer’s account portal, ISPs will be allowed to use hyperlinks to direct potential buyers and current customers to the labels displaying the full price information. 本文前面提到的计划变动很可能会导致更少的消费者看到价格标签。ISP 将不再需要在销售点和客户账户门户中显示完整标签，而是可以使用超链接将潜在买家和现有客户引导至显示完整价格信息的页面。
“While using hyperlinks to broadband labels instead of displaying the labels automatically may result in fewer consumers reading the label, interested consumers still have the opportunity to view the broadband label,” the FCC said. FCC 表示：“虽然使用超链接指向宽带标签而非自动显示标签可能会导致阅读标签的消费者减少，但感兴趣的消费者仍然有机会查看宽带标签。”
Public interest groups urged the FCC to scrap the planned changes during the comment period. The changes will make “the problem of junk fees, hidden charges, and difficult-to-understand billing worse, which could result in the widening of the digital divide. The Commission must not weaken oversight by allowing ISPs to operate without transparency, evade accountability, and entrench abusive practices,” a January 2026 filing said. 在意见征询期间，公共利益团体敦促 FCC 放弃这些计划中的变动。2026 年 1 月的一份文件指出，这些变动将使“垃圾费用、隐藏收费和难以理解的账单问题恶化，可能导致数字鸿沟扩大。委员会绝不能通过允许 ISP 在缺乏透明度的情况下运营、逃避问责并固化滥用行为来削弱监管。”