What's happening
This bill prohibits sending misleading or unauthorized commercial emails in New York and sets financial penalties for violations.
Why it matters
Targets deceptive methods. The bill specifically prohibits using tactics like forging domain names or hiding where an email comes from, as well as putting false or misleading information in the subject line—addressing common strategies used in spam and phishing scams.
Broad liability. It not only applies to the original sender of misleading commercial emails, but also to anyone who “assists” in sending these emails if they know (or consciously avoid knowing) about the deception, meaning email service providers or marketers could also be held responsible.
Financial deterrents. By allowing recipients to recover statutory damages ($100 for the first offense, $1,000 for each subsequent one), the law creates a financial incentive for individuals to pursue claims and for businesses to ensure compliance, potentially deterring mass email abuse.
Focus on New York residents. The bill covers emails sent from computers located in New York or sent to email addresses that the sender knows (or should know) belong to New York residents, which could affect out-of-state businesses and national email campaigns targeting New Yorkers.
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Ban Misleading Email Ads
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to corporations, authorities and commissions
- Referred to corporations, authorities and commissions
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
2260
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 23, 2019
Introduced by Sen. SANDERS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions
AN ACT to amend the business corporation law, in relation to unauthorized and misleading electronic mail
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The business corporation law is amended by adding a new article 18 to read as follows:
ARTICLE 18
UNAUTHORIZED AND
MISLEADING ELECTRONIC MAIL
Section 1801. Definitions.
1802. Misleading electronic mail; prohibition.
1803. Violations and damages. § 1801. Definitions.
For the purposes of this article, the following terms have the following meanings:
(a) "Assist the transmission" means actions taken by a person to provide substantial assistance or support which enables any person to formulate, compose, send, originate, initiate or transmit a commercial electronic mail message when the person providing the assistance knows or consciously avoids knowing that the initiator of the commercial electronic mail message is engaged or intends to engage, in any practice that violates the provisions of this article.
(b) "Commercial electronic mail message" means an electronic mail message sent for the purpose of advertising or promoting material for the lease, sale, rental, gift offer or other disposition of any realty, goods, services or extension of credit.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05443-01-9
S. 2260 2
(c) "Electronic mail address" means a destination, commonly expressed as a string of characters, to which electronic mail may be sent or delivered.
(d) "Initiate the transmission" refers to the action by the original sender of an electronic mail message, not to the action by any intervening interactive computer service that may handle or retransmit the message, unless such intervening interactive computer service assists in the transmission of an electronic mail message when it knows or consciously avoids knowing that the person initiating the transmission is engaged, or intends to engage, in any act or practice that violates the provisions of this article.
(e) "Internet domain name" refers to a globally unique, hierarchical reference to an internet host or service, assigned through centralized internet naming authorities, comprising a series of character strings separated by periods with the right-most string specifying the top of the hierarchy.
(f) "Person or entity" means a person, corporation, partnership, company, limited liability company, trust or association, or any agent or employee thereof. § 1802. Misleading electronic mail; prohibition.
(a) No person shall initiate the transmission, conspire with another to initiate the transmission or assist the transmission of a commercial electronic mail message from a computer located in this state or to an electronic mail address that the sender knows or has reason to know is held by a resident of this state that:
(1) Uses a third party's internet domain name without permission of the third party, or otherwise misrepresents or obscures any information in identifying the point of origin or the transmission path of a commercial electronic mail message; or
(2) Contains false or misleading information in the subject line.
(b) For the purposes of this section, a person knows that the intended recipient of a commercial electronic mail message is a resident of this state if that information is available, upon request, from the registrant of the internet domain name contained in the recipient's electronic mail address. § 1803. Violations and damages.
Damages recoverable by a recipient of a commercial electronic mail message sent in violation of this article are one hundred dollars for the first offense and one thousand dollars for each subsequent offense.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the business corporation law, in relation to unauthor- ized and misleading electronic mail
Purpose
This bill would prohibit the transmission of certain unauthorized and misleading e-mails.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 amends the business corporation law by adding a new Article 18.
1801 contains definitions.
§ 1802 prohibits the transmission of in-state commercial e-mails using an unauthorized third party domain or obscuring the email's point of origin, or containing false or misleading information in the subject line.
§ 1803 provides damages recoverable by such e-mail recipients are $100 for the first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.
Section 2 provides this act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
Existing law
None
Justification
Unsolicited bulk electronic mail, or "spam" is becoming increasingly problematic for New Yorkers. Unsolicited e-mails containing "get rich quick" schemes and pornographic materials are those types that are particularly dangerous, and both combined account for almost two- thirds of all spam.
Spam has significant costs for internet service providers who must pay for increased bandwidth as a result of areas eaten up by bulk e-mail, processing the large capacities spam occupies in email accounts, and consumers who choose to leave ISPs because of too much spam. ISPs pass these costs on to their customers. Businesses of all kinds must pay for ever-changing software to filter spam from their systems, and employees must spend time sifting through their e-mails to find those that are or are not legitimate.
Spam generators, in numerous cases have used deceptive marketing prac- tices, notably using an unrelated subject line to "hook" the recipient, routing e-mails through third-party computers so they appear to be coming from other businesses, and using invalid return addresses that instead of unsubscribing from the service, simply notify the spammer they have found a legitimate email address.
This bill mirrors a Washington law that has withstood constitutional challenges. The Washington portion of this bill forbids commercial e-mail with misleading subject lines or with a disguised point of origin. The Washington State Supreme Court upheld the law in July 2001 and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case in October 2001.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, these court decisions have bolstered state efforts to enact uniform legislation nationwide.
Legislative history
01/22/16 REFERRED TO CORPORATIONS, AUTHORITIES AND COMMISSIONS
Fiscal implications
None
Local fiscal implications
None
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.