A5093 was not released by the Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee on Monday, at the request of the sponsor, Assemblyman Roy Freiman, who is also a member of the committee. Instead, he asked that the bill be held so that he can make a few adjustments. Two amendments were discussed: both will clarify that the penalities in the bill are intended apply to the MLM company itself, not to news media that may post ads from MLMs, not individuals who get caught up working with an MLM.
There was also testimony given in opposition of the bill from Brian Bennett of the Direct Selling Association. Mr. Bennett said that he fully supports the intentions of the bill to ensure “a fair and transparent marketplace”, but believes that the bill is “over-arching”, and that consumer fraud laws already exist that would allow the Attorney General to prosecute bad MLM practices. He also said that the bill “puts the industry in a negative light” although he did admit that “there are acts and practices in the industry that need to be explained.”
The response from Assemblyman Freiman was that although there may be consumer fraud laws on the books, clearly they’re not sufficient to stop bad business practices from happening (since he admitted there were some questionable practices out there) so this law IS needed in order to put a stop to false claims, misinformation, and misleading promises about potential income.
Once the amendments are drafted, the bill will come back to the Committee for consideration. If you would like to contact the sponsor to express your feelings on this legislation, you can email Assemblyman Freiman directly at AsmFreiman@njleg.org
You can read the Statement for the Amended version of the bill HERE.