FTC and CFPB witnesses urge Colorado to strengthen laws on junk fees, algorithmic pricing and worker protections as federal enforcement weakens

Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya of the Federal Trade Commission and former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau attorney Seth Frotman told the joint House and Senate Judiciary Committees in the Colorado State Capitol on March 19 that state action is needed now to protect consumers, workers and small businesses as federal enforcement falters.

The witnesses urged Colorado lawmakers to pass bills that would bar hidden “junk” fees in housing and other markets, prohibit algorithmic surveillance pricing and algorithmic wage-setting, and strengthen workers’ rights. They warned that recent moves in Washington — including the alleged, and widely disputed, removal of FTC commissioners and the effective shutdown of parts of the CFPB — reduce federal capacity to police unfair or deceptive business practices.

Bedoya, who described recent federal efforts to block large mergers and to sue companies for monopolistic or deceptive conduct, framed his testimony around two themes: why recent federal personnel changes matter to market enforcement, and what states can do to fill gaps. He said the FTC has litigated and won cases against large landlords and other firms for adding hidden fees to consumers’ bills and pointed to the federal government’s role in blocking the proposed Kroger–Albertsons supermarket merger.

“The Kroger Albertsons merger … would have taken the biggest supermarket in town and merged it…