A guest at a Hilton hotel in Santa Rosa who was upset that he was billed 75 cents for a newspaper he assumed was free has filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the hotel chain, saying he was deceived by a scheme that also hurts the environment. 
 
 Rodney Harmon, 55, of Sacramento said he visited the Hilton Garden Inn Sonoma County Airport on March 28 and saw a copy of USA Today outside his door. 
 
 "He did not request a newspaper and assumed it had been placed there by hotel staff," said the suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Harmon didn't realize until later that a 75-cent charge for the paper had been added to his bill. 
 
 Harmon accused Hilton of deliberately hiding the newspaper charge by describing the fee in an "extremely small font which is difficult to notice or read" on the sleeve of the room card. 
 
 The suit noted that newspaper readership and circulation has drastically declined over the past several decades and that most hotel guests probably aren't reading the paper anyway. The wasted papers are an "offensive waste of precious resources and energy," said the suit, which also said that "deforestation caused by paper production is a matter of concern and worry in this state, country and worldwide." 
 
 "Certainly if people who don't want newspapers are getting newspapers and then not using them, that is waste that we don't need," Kirk Wolden, an attorney representing Harmon, said Friday, 
 
 "The alleged consumer injury is substantial, causing millions of guests at defendant's hotels to unwittingly part with money for a newspaper they did not request and reasonably believed was provided to them without charge," the suit says. 
 
 Hilton officials declined comment, citing the pending litigation. 
 
 This article appeared on page C - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle ||||| A man has decided to turn a minor annoyance, getting a newspaper at your hotel room door and getting charged for it, into a class action lawsuit. 
 
 The basis of the complaint was when a 55-year old man stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn and saw a copy of USA Today outside his door the next morning. "He did not request a newspaper and assumed it had been placed there by hotel staff," said the suit. He later got a 75-cent charge for the paper on his bill. In suing Hilton, he accused the hotel chain of hiding the fee in an "extremely small font which is difficult to notice or read" on the envelope the hotel room key goes into. 
 
 According to the suit, "The alleged consumer injury is substantial, causing millions of guests at defendant's hotels to unwittingly part with money for a newspaper they did not request and reasonably believed was provided to them without charge." 
 
 It's over a piddly sum, but the case could have big implications if it becomes the impetus to sue other hotel chains, since many hotels do just the same thing. 
 
 Hilton guest makes federal case of 75-cent paper [SF Gate] (Thanks to Paul!) 
 
 From ConsumerReports.org: ||||| A California man is suing the Hilton Hotels Corporation for charging him 75 cents for a copy of the USA Today newspaper that he did not request, according to a complaint filed last week in federal court in San Francisco. 
 
 The man, Rodney Harmon of Sacramento County, spent the night of March 28 in the Hilton Garden Inn Sonoma County Airport. When he left his room the next morning, he saw a copy of USA Today on the floor in front of his door, the familiar, bright blue logo peering up at him. But Mr. Harmon, 55, was not interested. He stepped over the paper and walked away. 
 
 Several days later, according to his lawyer, Kirk J. Wolden, Mr. Harmon glanced at the Hilton Garden Inn pouch that held his key card and found that it said, in small print, that he would be charged for the paper unless he specifically un-requested it. 
 
 So he sued. 
 
 “Mr. Harmon and this law firm believe there is more at stake than 75 cents,” Mr. Wolden said Monday. “It exemplifies the types of advantages that, unfortunately, we see companies taking of you and I and everyone else every day.” 
 
 He added, “We as individuals are expected to make an honest dollar.” 
 
 A spokesman for Hilton did not immediately respond for a request for comment Monday night. 
 
 The complaint asserts that the practice is not only deceitful, but also wasteful and damaging to the environment. 
 
 Would another publication have elicited a more positive response from Mr. Harmon? A San Francisco Chronicle, or perhaps a copy of Consumer Reports? 
 
 Mr. Wolden said he did not believe so.
– You know those copies of USA Today that sometimes get left outside your hotel room door? Apparently they're not free, at least not at the Hilton Garden Inn Sonoma County Airport, which one guest learned to his dismay. Now Rodney Harmon has filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the Hilton chain over the 75-cent charge, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Harmon says he stepped over the paper as he left the room. But a few days later, he noticed a small warning on his key card pouch informing him of the charge, according to the New York Times. "He did not request a newspaper and assumed it had been placed there by hotel staff," reads Harmon's suit, which adds that the hotel allegedly tried to hide the charge by listing it in an "extremely small font which is difficult to notice or read" on the key sleeve. Further, the suit accuses the hotel of an "offensive waste of precious resources and energy," since newspaper readership is down and most of the papers left for guests probably don't get read. Though the 75 cents is "a piddly sum," writes Ben Popken at the Consumerist, "the case could have big implications if it becomes the impetus to sue other hotel chains, since many hotels do just the same thing."