Bill > S00105

This bill enacts the Consumer and Small Business Protection Act (CSPA), which expands New York's existing consumer protection law to provide broader safeguards against unfair, deceptive, and abusive business practices. The legislation significantly broadens the definition of prohibited business acts by introducing three key criteria: unfair acts (those causing substantial, unavoidable injury), deceptive acts (those that mislead reasonable consumers), and abusive acts (those that materially interfere with a person's understanding of a product or service or take unreasonable advantage of a person's vulnerabilities). The bill increases statutory damages from $50 to $1,000, allows for punitive damages in egregious cases, and makes attorney's fees mandatory for prevailing plaintiffs. Notably, the law expands standing to bring actions, allowing individuals, small businesses, and non-profit organizations to sue for damages, and explicitly rejects previous court limitations that required violations to be "consumer-oriented" or have a broad public impact. The bill recognizes that unfair business practices disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, including low-income individuals, people of color, and those impacted by emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, and seeks to provide more accessible legal remedies for such groups.

Business and Industry

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S105