SACRAMENTO – Speaker Fabian Núñez’s (D-Los Angeles) bill to enhance privacy protections for recipients of misleading mailers today cleared an important hurdle, passing the Assembly Business and Professions Committee by a unanimous 9-0 vote.

“The privacy rights of too many Californians -- and particularly the elderly -- have been violated by distributors of these misleading ‘lead cards’,” Speaker Núñez said. “Under AB 2059, marketers will finally be forced to explicitly disclose who they represent and what consumers should expect if they respond to these unsolicited mailers.”

AB 2059 would create new guidelines for ‘lead cards,’ frequently misleading mailers sent to residents encouraging them to choose to receive information from solicitors via telephone. Lead cards are frequently designed to harvest private contact information from consumers and bypass the do-not-call list, often implying that the cards come from a federal agency or advocacy group.

AB 2059 requires that all marketers reaching Californians clearly disclose the sender’s identity and inform the recipient that they should expect telephone calls from the private entity involved.

It was inspired by a Page One Wall Street Journal expose on exploitative ‘lead card’ practices targeting elderly Americans. That story is here: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119335472901272206.html

It now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for consideration.