Committee Votes to Repeal Maine Children's Marketing Bill

Good news from the Maine Legislature! The Committee on Business, Research and Economic Development (BRED) voted unanimously yesterday to repeal the "Predatory Marketing to Minors" law that was passed last year. That law imposes serious restrictions on the collection and use of personal information from minors under the age of 18, both offline and online.

ANA joined with a coalition of companies and industry groups to file a lawsuit last summer in federal court, arguing that the law violates the First Amendment and is pre-empted by the federal COPPA law. Although the court did not strike down or enjoin the law, the Maine Attorney General publicly committed not to enforce it. The Judiciary Committee voted in October to recommend that the new law be repealed.

The sponsor introduced a new bill this year (LD 1677) that would repeal the current law and replace it with a more narrowly tailored regime that would prohibit certain pharmaceutical marketing to minors. The BRED Committee held a hearing on LD 1677 on March 4. ANA provided a letter to the committee urging it to simply repeal the law from last year. The BRED Committee held a work session on the bill yesterday and ultimately voted for a "clean" repeal of the current law. We expect that bill to move quickly through the legislature and to be signed by the Governor.

If you have any questions about this matter, please contact Dan Jaffe (djaffe@ana.net) in ANA's Washington, D.C. office at 202.296.1883.

We will keep you informed of further developments in this area.