James Maroney

State Senator James Maroney Leads Passage of Bill Regarding Consumer Protection

Today, State Senator James Maroney (D-Milford), Senate Chair of the General Law Committee, lead State Senate passage of a bill that regards consumer protection and financial reporting by charitable organizations. The bill will set several regulations that will benefit all Connecticut consumers when making specific purchases.

Senate Bill 1058, ‘An Act Concerning The Attorney General’s Recommendations Regarding Consumer Protection And Financial Reporting By Charitable Organizations,” passed the State Senate with a unanimous vote and now heads to the House of Representatives.

“This is a very strong consumer friendly bill,” said Sen. Maroney. “I have heard so many complaints about robocalls, ticket prices, and cable companies overcharging residents in Connecticut. This legislation will help protect everyone from annoyances and companies that abuse their customers. Along with Attorney General Tong, I am honored to lead the unanimous vote that will advance reforms that will address the unfair ticketing practices, constant robocalls and expensive bills for cable Connecticut consumers are faced with.”

SB 1058 will protect Connecticut residents’ information. It will be required by companies to notify Connecticut residents when their location data is compromised in a data breach. Geolocation data poses significant privacy and security concerns as it can reveal intimate details of an individual’s routines, choices, and beliefs, such as one’s personal health decisions. While new state consumer privacy laws like the recently enacted Connecticut Data Privacy Act (“CTDPA”) acknowledge the sensitivity of this data and provide consumers with rights over how it may be processed and disclosed, these laws do not require that consumers be notified when their geolocation data may be at risk due to a data breach.

SB 1058 also addresses abuses in ticket pricing. The bill will take action in reforming unfair, anti-consumer ticketing practices in the live event industry and would revise Connecticut’s disclosure law on ticketing surcharges, which has not been updated since 1991. This part of the bill is modeled after a law enacted in New York in 2022 and requires ticket sellers to disclose the “all-in” price of a ticket, inclusive of all fees and surcharges, from the time the ticket is selected for purchase. Disclosure of fees from the start of the ticket purchase process will save consumers valuable time selecting the perfect seat for a reasonable price only to discover a huge mark-up in fees and surcharges when they are about to click “purchase.” It also requires resellers to disclose how much they originally paid for the tickets they are selling.

Currently, Connecticut has an active investigation into the live event ticketing industry following widespread concern regarding the recent handling of Taylor Swift concert ticket sales.

SB 1058 addresses telemarketing and do not call registries. This bill broadens applicability of the state’s telemarketing laws, Do Not Call laws, and other restrictions. It prohibits initiating a commercial transaction or telephonic sales call using various types of technology to contact a telephone number with a Connecticut area code and establishes rebuttable presumptions on call locations.

The robocall-blocking company YouMail states that in 2022, Connecticut consumers received approximately 471 million robocalls. Of those, 26%, or about one out of every four robocalls, were scam calls.

This legislation offers Connecticut consumers some relief, first by prohibiting U.S.-based telecommunications businesses called VoIP providers from providing essential assistance to overseas fraudsters by routing their calls through to unwitting recipients, effectively stopping illegal phone traffic at its point of entry to the United States.

And SB 1058 addresses consumers cable bills. This will require cable companies to pro-rate a person’s bill if they cancel their subscription mid-month. A person who cancels will receive a pro-rated refund for the rest of the month they did not use cable for.