Senate Bill S4213

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S4213

SPONSOR: STAVISKY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the general business law, in relation to the rebuttable
presumption relating to identifying information on an unsolicited adver-
tisement in cities with a population of one million or more

 
PURPOSE:

The purpose of this legislation is to amend the "lawn litter law"
rebuttable presumption provisions which require that advertising materi-
als be placed at "two or more premises".

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section I of the bill amends subdivision 3 or section 397-a of the
general business law, as amended by chapter .3 of the laws of 2008, to
repeal certain provisions of the "rebuttable presumption" section that
require advertising materials to be placed at "two or more premises" for
              

the presumption to be applicable.

Section II of the bill sets forth the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Under the current "lawn litter law", a rebuttable presumption of liabil-
ity is imposed on those persons whose name, telephone number or other
identifying information appears on any unsolicited advertising materials
that have been placed at two or more premises.

The New York City Department of Sanitation has stated that it cannot
enforce the law on the basis of a property owner's affidavit of receiv-
ing unsolicited materials unless there are affidavits showing that such
materials were placed at two or more premises as required by law in
order to trigger the "rebuttable presumption" provision.

The requirement that such materials be "placed at two or more premises"
serves no legitimate purpose in triggering the "rebuttable presumption"
of liability for persons who place unsolicited advertising materials on
private property. If a property owner has received unsolicited materials
they should be allowed to seek protection of the "lawn litter law" and
its rebuttable presumption provisions without first having to prove that
such materials were placed at more than one location.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

Introduced in a previous legislative session.

 
FISCAL IMPACT ON STATE:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.