Consumer protection enhancements advanced

Lawmakers advanced a bill from general file March 29 that would strengthen consumer protection laws.

LB835, introduced by Omaha Sen. Heath Mello, would make changes to several consumer protection statutes including the Credit Report Protection Act, the Consumer Protection Act, the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Financial Data Protection and Consumer Notification of Data Security Breach Act.

Mello said the bill would modernize the state’s consumer protections laws, some of which have not been updated since 1974.

Currently, if a minor has no credit file established, a consumer reporting agency can deny a request for a security freeze. LB835 would amend the Credit Report Protection Act to require the agency to create a credit file for the minor upon receiving a security freeze request.

A Judiciary Committee amendment, adopted 26-0, would extend the bill’s security freeze provision to a new category of protected consumers, which includes individuals under 16 and incapacitated individuals under the guidance of a guardian ad litem.

It also would allow a protected consumer to have a security freeze removed from his or her record.

Proposed changes to the Financial Data Protection and Consumer Notification of Data Security Breach Act include requiring any entity that suffers a data breach to notify customers if personal information—including email addresses or user names in combination with a password or security question—is acquired by an unauthorized party. The bill would require the entity to notify the attorney general’s office of the breach.

The attorney general’s office would be permitted to share documentary material obtained through a Civil Investigative Demand with other law enforcement agencies under the Consumer Protection Act. LB835 also would increase from $25,000 to $500,000 the maximum civil penalty for antitrust violations, including restraint of trade and monopolization.

Finally, the bill would add two additional deceptive trade practices under the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act: a person representing that goods do not contain ingredients or characteristics that the goods actually contain and a person employing any deception or fraud while soliciting funds or assets for a charitable purpose.

Following the adoption of a technical amendment, senators advanced the bill on a 26-0 vote.