 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. 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.  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. 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. "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. This article appeared on page C - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
– 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."