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History
- Referred to consumer protection
- Referred to consumer protection
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to itinerant vendors
Purpose
This legislation amends the General Business Law to specify certain additional items that itinerant vendors are prohibited from selling, as well as clarifying the definitions of certain items that itinerant vendors are currently prohibited from selling.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 amends section 38 of the General Business Law, to prohibit any itinerant vendor from selling "baby food," "non-prescription drugs" and "cosmetics" as defined in the bill. Under current law, itinerant vendors are prohibited from selling certain items, including food manufactured and packaged for sale for children under the age of 2, and "drugs" as defined in the Public Health Law. This legislation eliminates these definitions and replaces them with "baby food" and "non-prescription drugs" and establishes more precise definitions. Additionally, the legislation adds the category of "cosmetics" to items that are prohibited from being sold.
Section 2 establishes an effective date.
Justification
The itinerant vendor statute, which was adopted as Chapter 282 of the Laws of 1995 was originally enacted to curtail the sale of certain perishable, high-theft items through the flea markets. The 1995 law focused on baby foods and over-the-counter drugs, as these were items that professional thieves were targeting to resell through flea markets and were products that were compromised when exposed to sunlight and high temperatures. The need to tighten the definitions in General Business Law section 38 were brought to light this past year when law enforcement officials in central New York State encountered difficulties in halting the sale of stolen non-prescription drugs because of the ambiguous definitions contained in the current law. The proposed bill would clarify the current statute by redefining baby foods and non-prescription drugs. It will expand the statute to include the sale of cosmetics by itinerant vendors, as these products are increasingly becoming targeted by thieves and also because exposure to sunlight and heat can compromise these items. The illegal activity that this bill aims to deter is different from shoplifting. In shoplifting crimes, individuals typically steal single items for their own use, whereas this bill addresses the theft of multiple products by career criminals or shoplifting "gangs" who seek to steal the goods and then resell them at a profit. Baby food, non-prescription drugs and cosmetics are easily targeted by these thieves because they are small, easily concealable and relatively expensive items.
Prohibiting the sale of these items by itinerant vendors will close an outlet for these professional thieves to resell the products they steal, thereby making their theft less desirable.
Legislative history
2007-08: S.3871, Referred to Consumer Protection 2005-06: S.3174, Passed Senate; Died in Assembly Codes 2004: S.7138-A, Referred to Consumer Protection
Fiscal implications
None to the state.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.