ICYMI: Report Shows ‘Annoyance Economy’ Rips Off Consumers for $165 Billion Annually

ICYMI: Report Shows ‘Annoyance Economy’ Rips Off Consumers for $165 Billion Annually

Spam and robocalls cost Americans over $32 billion annually, junk fees cost consumers $90 billion annually, and health care headaches cost $41 billion.

Groundwork Collaborative recently published Taking on the Annoyance Economy, which totals the cost of the Annoyance Economy at $165 billion in wasted time and effort. Groundwork Policy Fellow Chad Maisel and Stanford economist Neale Mahoney find that tactics such as obstructing cancellations can raise corporate profits by up to 200%. The annoyances are increasingly inescapable: Americans receive more than 130 million scam and illegal marketing calls each day, and over 20 billion spam texts each month. By draining money, time, and energy, the Annoyance Economy amplifies the cost of daily life and hits families hardest who are already stretched thin. As Americans face an affordability crisis, the Trump administration has let the “Annoyance Economy” flourish — scrapping airline refund rules, repealing CFPB overdraft protections, and cutting enforcement against scams and abusive practices.

Coverage of Taking on the Annoyance Economy:

• The Atlantic, “America’s Annoyance Economy is Growing”
  • “‘Companies have worked really hard to make it easy for you’ to spend, Lindsay Owens, the executive director of Groundwork, told me. ‘Of course, when it comes to trying to get out of a purchase or out of a subscription, the same design choices are flipped and reversed.’”
  • “The only solution is for the government to do its job. It should require companies to act transparently. And it should protect consumers from extractive administrative practices. … But restrictions on robocalls and hidden fees are among the most popular policy proposals out there, on a bipartisan basis; two-thirds of Americans think that Congress should address these time-wasting, income-sapping frustrations.”
• USA Today, “Tired of hold music? Welcome to the ‘annoyance economy.’”
  • “A major function of the annoyance economy, the report says, is to make it harder for consumers to accomplish anything that’s against a company’s financial interest…All told, the report says, the annoyance economy costs American consumers $166 billion a year in lost time and dollars.”
• Marketplace, “Annoyances cost Americans $165 billion every year”
  • “Companies want to make it easy to sign up and hard to cancel. Retail stores want to make it easy for you to buy, but if you want to return something, you’re going to have to jump through hoops and hurdles. So, yes, some of this is intentional—part of the business model of companies in our economy.’
• The New Republic, “How Companies Profit by Annoying the Hell Out of You”
  • “…the federal government tried to tackle the worst practices and make it easier for consumers to avoid junk fees, cancel services, deal with tax season, access government programs, and a number of other changes. Trump rolled all of that back, and here we are, still wasting money, still annoyed.”
  • “‘While something like banning junk fees might seem too small-bore to run on alone, the Groundwork report conveys the true size of the problem—and how big corporations benefit by wearing people down
• Fortune, “Welcome to the ‘annoyance economy’: Americans are paying over $165 billion a year as companies waste their time to drive revenue”
  • “…the report shows a ‘vibes-based analysis of the economy’ in which ‘every consumer interaction is just harder than it used to be.’”

To read more about Taking On the Annoyance Economy, click here.