STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2210

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2031

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Economic Development and Tourism, to which was referred S.B. No. 2031 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONSUMER PROTECTION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to make it an unfair or deceptive act or practice for businesses to:

(1) Offer, display, or advertise the price of live-ticket events or short-term lodging without clearly and conspicuously disclosing the total price; and

(2) Misrepresent any fees or charges in any offer, display, or advertisement for the sale of live-event tickets or short-term lodging.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Starn, O'Toole, Marcus & Fisher, a Law Corporation.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Financial Services Association.

Your Committee finds that consumers increasingly face unfair or deceptive fee practices that obscure price information and unduly complicate comparison shopping. Charging junk fees and other undisclosed mandatory costs in addition to the initial, posted price of a good or service, known as drip pricing, frustrates and misleads consumers, contributing to economic inefficiencies. Your Committee further finds that these unfair or deceptive fee practices are most prevalent in the sale of live‑event tickets and short-term lodging because most transactions occur online where consumers may need to click through multiple web pages to learn the true total price. Consumer harm is also most notable in these industries, which are central to the State's tourism sector, because the offered goods and services are often identical or nearly identical and the most salient differentiating feature is the total price which is shrouded from consumers. This measure establishes consumer protections by making these fee practices unfair or deceptive acts or practices to promote economic transparency and efficiency.

Your Committee acknowledges the concern raised in testimony by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs that the detailed medium-based disclosure requirements to satisfy the clear and conspicuous disclosure standard should apply not only to the provision that requires clear and conspicuous disclosure of certain information, including the total price and final amount of payment, before the consumer consents to pay for any covered good or service, but also to the provision that requires businesses to clearly and conspicuously disclose the total price in general. Therefore, amendments to this measure are necessary to address this concern.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Moving the detailed medium-based disclosure requirements into the definition of "clearly and conspicuously" to ensure that the same disclosure standards are applied throughout the measure where the term "clearly and conspicuously" is used; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Development and Tourism that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2031, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2031, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Development and Tourism,

________________________________

LYNN DECOITE, Chair