Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is it worthwhile for Labour to try and regulate hidden fees?

Now, I don't know that Labour's plan to stop businesses charging hidden fees is a game changer, or even necessarily something worth campaigning on during an election. But I think it might be a good idea.

Labour's plan is basically to ban junk add-ons like paint protection insurance, stop the hard sell of extended warranties like the ones you're offered when you buy a new pair of AirPods, require all mandatory fees, such as ticketing charges, to be included in the upfront price and make subscriptions and gym memberships easy to cancel.

Now, obviously there are going to be limitations on what Labour can actually control here. They're not going to be able to outlaw the New York Times, which is based in New York, from forcing you to call New York to cancel a subscription you took out online. And forcing Ticketek, for example, to publish its extra fees upfront is not going to make those fees disappear when you buy yourself a ticket to see Macy Gray.

But some of it will be useful because some people genuinely find themselves surprised and angry when they buy a $200 Dom Dolla ticket and then get hit with a $10 booking fee for each ticket, plus a handling fee of nearly $6. Putting those costs upfront simply makes the ticket price more real than if they're hidden until later. I think we can all agree on that.

Stopping the hard sell on extended warranties is probably valuable as well because I don't know how many people who pay for extra cover for their fridge, phone or AirPods realise they already have protection under the Consumer Guarantees Act. That law requires manufacturers to ensure their products last a reasonable length of time and, in many cases, longer than the warranty people have just shelled out for.

Now, I've been around long enough, and you've probably been around long enough, to realise that a ban or greater transparency, as I said, doesn't make the cost go away. It just means the cost gets buried somewhere else. So the devil will be in the detail of how Labour plans to do this.

But doing something might be worthwhile because it has been a long time now that consumers have been taken advantage of by retailers who prey on their ignorance.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.