Connecticut lawmakers passed legislation this session that overhauls portions of the state’s consumer protection laws by adding additional safeguards for people purchasing a wide variety of goods and services.
The 33-page bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont earlier this month, was one of the top priorities for Senate Democrats this year, and it includes some far-reaching changes.
It widens the state Attorney General Office’s ability to police price gouging, mandates that businesses disclose so-called junk fees, requires companies producing internet-connected devices to inform people if their technology captures and shares audio or video from homes and more.
Sen. James Maroney, D-Milford, helped shepherd the bill, S.B. 3, through the legislature and said it would help to protect Connecticut residents in a changing consumer landscape.
“Connecticut is stepping up to protect families from predatory business practices, whether it’s microphones in household appliances, recording their conversations or surprise junk fees inflating their bills,” Maroney, co-chair of the legislature’s General Law Committee, said.
Here is what the bill will and won’t do.
Price gouging
Connecticut already had a law on the books that allowed the state’s attorney general to police and prosecute cases of price gouging, or artificially jacking up the price on goods during emergencies, like natural disasters.
S.B. 3 expands the attorney general’s oversight beyond retailers, like supermarkets and gas stations. Now, the AG’s office can also investigate and charge distributors, manufacturers, suppliers and wholesalers for charging “unconscionably excessive” prices.
The law also expanded that oversight to rental and leasing agreements.
Automatic renewals
Have you ever signed up for a service and forgot that you were paying for it? Well, the Connecticut legislature wants to make sure you get a reminder.
Part of the new consumer protection law requires some companies that have “automatic renewals” or “continuous service provisions” to send consumers an annual notice that they will continue to be charged for the service.
The law also mandates that the companies alert consumers how they can cancel that recurring contract via a website, phone or email.
That segment of the bill does not apply to every company, however. Lawmakers specifically provided exemptions to that rule for gas, water and electric utilities and internet service providers. They also provided similar exemptions to banks and insurance companies.
All of those are already regulated by separate state and federal entities.
But lawmakers also exempted what they referred to as “global or national services” that predominantly provide “audiovisual content,” which would seem to include online streaming services.
Total price disclosure
Another section of the new law deals with hidden fees, or junk fees as they are sometimes called.
Lawmakers crafted language that prohibits businesses from “advertising, displaying, or offering” a good or service at a price that does not incorporate all of the “fees, charges and costs” that consumers will be required to pay.
If such fees are not “advertised or displayed,” or if the charges are “intentionally obscured, unclear or misrepresented,” companies can be sued under Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.
That type of requirement also applies to rental properties. The bill generally states that a landlord must include any periodic “fee, charge, or cost” that a tenant must pay when advertising a dwelling unit for rent.
Just like the automatic renewals, however, there are exceptions to the fee disclosures.
Companies don’t need to list federal, state or local taxes that are added onto a purchase price. The law also does not apply in situations where a business “cannot feasibly” calculate what something, like shipping, will cost during the time of the purchase.
Internet connected devices
Connecticut lawmakers also waded into a relatively new consumer issue: devices that can record people in their own homes.
The Democratic-controlled legislature is seeking to prevent companies that sell internet-connected appliances, televisions, or toys from recording unwitting consumers and then using that information for their own purposes.
The new law specifies that companies selling such products must inform people when their device can transmit audio or video back to the manufacturer or a third party. The devices must also give consumers the option of deactivating such features, unless that action would render the device useless.
Lawmakers also added a section to the bill that prohibits internet-connected devices from including built-in features that allow law enforcement agencies to monitor people’s communications.
And it prohibits companies from using the devices to collect information that can help other businesses identify the user for targeted advertising.
Maroney referred to those sections as the bill’s “eavesdropping provisions.”
Right to repair
One of the most ambitious sections of the law deals with what is known as right to repair, which seeks to ensure that consumers have access to all of the materials needed to repair their own products.
More than half a dozen other states have already passed similar provisions into law.
Connecticut’s version mandates that the manufacturers of electronics or appliances make resources available to allow consumers to “diagnose, maintain, or repair their products.”
The bill specifies that those resources should include “documentation, parts and tools,” and it will apply to products “manufactured, sold or used” in Connecticut after July 1, 2026.
The manufacturers will be required to make that documentation and those parts and tools available for three or five years, depending on how much the product costs.
But companies don’t need to turn over anything that would be considered a trade secret or intellectual property and the bill doesn’t apply to products that are no longer being manufactured.
Still, there is a long list of items that won’t be covered, including boats, all-terrain vehicles, generators, power tools, electric vehicle charging stations, lawn equipment, construction equipment, farm equipment, forestry equipment, mining equipment and engines.
