Prohibits persons, who are not licensed employment agencies and who charge a fee for performers' services, from making misleading representations that it will secure a job for a client in the entertainment field

BILL NUMBER:S7829

Title of bill

An act to amend the general business law, in relation to prohibiting certain entities charging fees for performers' services from making certain false, misleading or deceptive representations

Purpose

To create an unambiguous distinction between Employment Agencies and Talent Services Companies, to prevent the latter from making false and misleading statements concerning job placement to workers and performers, and to create a plaintiff cause of action as well as civil and criminal penalties for such violations.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 amends the general business law creating a new section 180 in relation to Performers' services, providing that no person who is not licensed under this article shall make any false, misleading or deceptive oral or written representation that it will secure for a prospective client a job as a performer in the entertainment industry in exchange for such fee.

Section 2 amends section 190 of the general business law to provide a violation under section

Section 3 contains the effective date

Justification

New York State is home to thousands of performers seeking a legitimate opportunity to work in the entertainment industry. Unfortunately, the number of candidates looking for employment far exceeds the available opportunities for work, creating a highly competitive labor market and one wrought with unscrupulous players who prey upon a class of uninformed workers/performers.

Throughout New York, entities place adds in neighborhood newspapers, and attach advertisements to walls and poles, whereby they offer potential clients services such as acting seminars, career counseling, and resume assistance. However, these advertisements take an insidious turn once they couple these offered services with false and deceptive representations of securing employment for the potential client. Such a representation is the hook that ropes in the client, and is the equivalent of stealing sometimes hundreds, or even thousands of dollars from a trusting and unsuspecting performer.

Relevant examples of such practices in New York include the young performer whose parents are told that their child will secure work once they provide a fee to an entity, in order to expose the child to a particular casting director, agent, producer or manager. Another recent trend is the company that claims it will secure an actor an audition for a reality television show, for a fee, and that should the actor make it past the first cut, their fee will be returned. In other cases, unscrupulous producers are attempting to finance their films by charging actors fees in order to appear in the film, or casting agencies charging actors fees to post headshots and resumes online and claiming that they will have access to various film projects. Performers are tricked into believing that than entity or person is well connected within the industry, and falsely believe that they will secure work from such access by paying fees.

Currently, these "Talent Services Companies" are outside the grasp of the civil and criminal law because they are not characterized or registered as "employment agencies." This proposed bill would give any injured party a right to bring action in their own name to recover damages.

Legislative history

New Bill

Fiscal implications

None

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have become a law.