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By Anna Haecherl and Anika Besst

More than a dozen new laws go into effect Jan. 1. The state will see more protections for concert ticket buyers, salary ranges required in job postings, additional rights for renters and more.

Here’s a look at a handful of the new laws in the state for 2025.

‘Junk fees’

Have you gone out for a meal recently and seen a bunch of charges you didn’t expect on the bill?

A new law going into effect in 2025 aim to crack down on the add-on fees for everything from concert tickets to hotel rooms and restaurant bills. Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, sponsored the legislation in the House on what she calls “junk fees.” The law prohibits a person or business from advertising goods and services that do not include all mandatory fees or surcharges.

“It is a very, very simple rule. It says when you offer a price for good or services, you have to tell the public,” Greenman said. “You have to tell consumers what it costs for those goods and services.”

Concert tickets

Another law that goes after concert tickets specifically — dubbed the “Taylor Swift bill” while moving through the Legislature — seeks to stop bot services from buying up tickets and driving up costs for prospective buyers.

It also bans speculative ticketing, where tickets are sold before they are actually available. And it will prevent ticket companies and resellers from using deceptive practices.

“This is about fairness in how we go about ticketing,” said Gov. Tim Walz at a signing ceremony at First Avenue in May. “It’s protection, so you don’t get a fraudulent ticket. The resellers can’t snatch them all up before you get an opportunity to do it.”

Rep. Kelly Moller, DFL-Shoreview, authored the bill in the House and said the inspiration for the bill came from her experiencing trying to secure tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in summer 2023 in Minneapolis.

She said a Taylor Swift fan shared an experience about facing surprise fees when purchasing Eras Tour tickets.

“She and her friends had set a budget for how much they wanted to spend on tickets, and then when they got to the end, realized there was like $100 in added fees so it put them way over their budget,” Moller said. “But the way those ticketing websites operate, you have like a minute to complete your transaction, or you get booted out.”

The bill was fittingly identified as HF1989 in the House, a number many fans know as both the year Swift was born and the name of her fifth studio album.

PFAS or ‘forever chemicals’

Beginning Jan. 1, Minnesota will ban products that intentionally include so-called “forever chemicals” known as PFAS.

Products fall under 11 categories which include household furnishings like rugs and carpets; personal care items like cosmetics; and dental floss as well as some cleaning products.

Some PFAS have been linked to health effects, including some types of cancer, thyroid disease and low birth weight. The chemicals have been found in water, soil, wildlife and humans around the globe.

Salary ranges in job postings

Another new law requires a person or entity in the state that employs 30 or more employees must disclose in each job posting the salary range or fixed pay rate for a job. The provision was in the 2024 labor and industry policy law.

Abortion and gender-affirming care

There’s a new law that requires all health plans provide coverage for abortions and abortion-related services.

Another one requires health plans in the state that cover physical or mental health services must cover medically necessary gender-affirming care as well.

‘Clean slate’ expungements

A new law will begin expunging criminal records for Minnesotans who have remained crime-free of certain low-level offenses. It applies to an estimated 500,000 Minnesotans who have nonviolent misdemeanor and low-level felony crimes.

Those who are eligible will be able to have their record automatically erased as long as they have not reoffended for two to five years.

The law was created in 2023 to recognize Minnesotans with a criminal past who want to move forward with their lives and make it easier for employers to hire them.

Qualifying offenses include petty misdemeanors (other than traffic and parking offenses) and misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors (other than DWI and offenses related to domestic violence).

College voting locations

A new law will require an additional polling place to be open for at least one day on the campus of a post-secondary institution. This applies to the state general election or off-year city general elections, if it is requested by the student government or school itself. In order to be eligible, the institution must provide on-campus housing to at least 100 students.

The law says that the location can be within one-half mile of the campus as long as it is “reasonably accessible.” Local election officials will get reimbursed for operational costs by the secretary of state’s office.

Candidacy filing requirements

There is also a law that requires candidates to present a valid driver’s license or state identification card listing their current address or proof of residence when filing an affidavit of candidacy.

Binary trigger ban

A new law will prohibit guns with binary triggers which allow guns to shoot a shot both on the pull of a trigger and on the trigger release without another pull of the trigger. This was part of a law that passed in the final hours of the 2024 session.

Office of Emergency Medical Services

A new law has created the Office of Emergency Medical Services to replace the Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board. The office will be led by a governor-appointed director.

Their responsibilities include regulating ambulance services across the state, establishing primary service areas, investigating complaints, registering medical response units, certifying paramedics and approving education programs.

Medical costs and coverage

Health plans can no longer set patient co-pays greater than $25 per one-month supply of prescription drugs used to treat chronic diseases including diabetes, asthma and allergies.

There is also a $50 per month limit in total for all related medical supplies like syringes, insulin pens and pumps.

Health plans must also cover biomarker testing to diagnose, treat, manage and monitor illness or disease.

There will also be coverage for scalp hair prostheses, often called wigs, in cases of hair loss due to alopecia areata and hair loss suffered because of a health condition or for the treatment of cancer. And coverage for amino acid-based elemental formula when it is medically necessary.

Renters’ rights

In 2025, tenant associations can form organizations to improve housing conditions, amenities or community life. It will protect tenant organizers from being retaliated against.

It will also require landlords to provide remedies if a move-in date changes due to new construction delays.

There is also a law that will largely be effective as of Jan. 1 that will protect residential utility customers from having electric or natural gas services shut off between Oct. 1 and April 30.