On June 10, the New York State legislature ended its session, failing to pass controversial bills related to antitrust and consumer privacy. While the legislature had considered various consumer privacy bills, none of them passed. The bills ranged from narrow legislation regarding users’ right to know to several comprehensive online privacy bills. In addition to the consumer privacy bills, the state Assembly failed to adopt the highly controversial antitrust bill, S933A. The bill would have established a $9.2 million threshold for pre-merger notifications and a low market share threshold for the bill’s abuse of dominance provisions, in addition to allowing private class actions. While aimed at big tech companies, the bill would have arguably affected many other businesses operating in the state. The bill passed the state Senate earlier in June. Meanwhile, the legislature did pass a bill (S2890B/A5837B) requiring publishers of electronic books to offer licenses to state public libraries on reasonable terms. The bill, similar to one passed in Maryland earlier this year, defines some key terms broadly and has raised federal pre-emption concerns. The bill is now expected to go to the governor sometime later this year.
Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.
