By Steve Staeger, Anna Heewson

Every business that sells products inside Denver International Airport is subject to a policy little known by the public – an attempt to keep prices down for the passengers traveling through. Items inside the airport shouldn’t be marked up more than 15% from their street price.

But an investigation by Steve On Your Side found many items that appeared to be marked up higher than that 15% when compared to similar items off airport property. Our review also found an airport policy with wide latitude, allowing retailers to set those higher prices, and one retailer simply ignoring the policy with the airport’s blessing.

The head of concessions at the airport told Steve On Your Side that most of the high markups we found were prices that were approved by the airport under its policy.

Street pricing rules became common in airports following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when airport security tightened, keeping passengers inside the airport longer — wandering through concourses that are increasingly becoming more like shopping malls.

For more on this story, and others, visit The Denver Gazette’s news partners 9NEWS.