States Over Step Their Rights

David Daniels | August 09, 2005, 04:15 PM

The new MI and UT Child Protection laws are reminiscent of the fall of 2003 when the oppressive CA SB186 legislation was about to go into effect. While the CA law was preempted by the federal CAN SPAM law, there doesn’t appear to be anything stopping these registries which go live Monday (8/15). While the registries are designed to protect minors from being marketed products that are unlawful for them to buy, CAN SPAM preempts the whole existence of such a registry. The laws are problematic for several reasons, including a private right of action (individual law suits), the high cost of matching against their list (note, this is per entry – not per matched entry) as well as the fact that the FTC themselves ruled against such registries because of security issues. Additionally the fees associated with these matching against these registries would amount to these states taxing and regulating interstate commerce – which they most certainly cannot do. Matt Blumberg of Return Path highlights more of the insanity with these laws. Bottom line, if you haven’t done so, consult your council on compliance and then watch these laws get challenged.