As Biden noted, the FCC “proposed a new rule that would require cable and satellite TV providers to give consumers the all-in price for the service they’re offering up front.” The proposed rule would force companies like Comcast, Charter Spectrum, and DirecTV to publish more accurate prices.

  • Enantiophobe@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    If I had a dollar for every news article that talked about how such-and-such regulatory body “might” do something that benefits consumers over corporations, I could actually afford all those hidden fees.

    • SirNuke@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      While I would also pump the brakes a bit on any particular effort, the Biden administration is pushing back against the dominate thinking of “antitrust bad” that emerged in the 70s. I believe he’s made a lot of appointments reflecting that, which hasn’t happened since the Carter administration.

      What kicked off that shift? Robert Bork’s 1978 book The Antitrust Paradox, which is yes that Robert Bork. I honestly think people could use more knowledge about the sausage is made when it comes to government.

  • Bonzo@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Let’s get pharma out of advertising too. NZ and USA are the only countries in the world to allow it.

    • Malossi167@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      NZ and USA are the only countries in the world to allow it.

      No, a ton of others also allow it but there might be more more (or fewer) restrictions. But yes, advertising pharma products is pretty weird. Your doctor should proscribe your meds and you should not ask for something specific because an ad told you so. And many of those proscription free cold medicines are not really necessary or effective anyway.

      • Silviecat44@vlemmy.net
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        1 year ago

        Direct-to-consumer advertising is the promotion of prescription medicines to the general public. New Zealand and the USA are the only two countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines.1 Feb 2004

        • MaggiWuerze@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          They are the only ones for prescription medicine. I Germany there’s also TV ads for medicine, but just for stuff you can just go and buy in a pharmacy.

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      1 year ago

      Yep this feels like little more than a publicity stunt so politicians can talk about how they’re “reigning in cable companies” while the cable companies still get to gouge us with poor service, monopolies, and sky high pricing on internet service.

      How about some real action, Democratic party? Enough with the lip service.

      • abhibeckert@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Australia recenlty rolled out some pretty simple “applies to everything” rules. Whatever price you advertise, you have to sell your product/service for that price.

        You can only charge extra fees if those are optional fees for additional services on top of the product you’ve advertised. If they are mandatory fees, then you have to sell the product for the lowest price you’ve advertised. And you can be forced to issue partial refunds to every customer you’ve ever had who paid too much.

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    1 year ago

    I’ll believe it when I see it. It seems like things like this come up all the time and never actually go anywhere.

  • Antik@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    One of the best decisions in my life was to drop cable/satellite and go pirate.

    Even with a VPN, a Usenet sub, and multiple paid memberships to nzb indexers, it’s still an exponentially better experience than cable.

    • radau@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Recently did this, there’s some setup if you want it all automated (arr stack with nzbget and jellyfin+jellyseerr for me) but the end result is so worth it. Stremio and debrid are pretty nice for one offs too

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    1 year ago

    Kodi with a Real Debrid and/or Easynews is far better option than any cable/streaming option we have.

  • RadDevon@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Greater transparency under capitalism is always a good thing. I have to admit, one thing Trump did that I liked was to force hospitals to publish their prices. I can’t think of a good reason people buying a thing shouldn’t know how much it costs beforehand.