A pair of House bills that would regulate direct mail sweepstakes were blasted by industry representatives during a Congressional subcommittee hearing last month. The hearing, conducted by subcommittee chairman Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), was on the Honesty in Sweepstakes Act (HR-170) sponsored by Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), and the Sweepstakes Protection Act (HR-237) sponsored by Rep. James Rogan (R-CA). Jerry Cerasale, the Direct Marketing Association’s senior vice president for government affairs, said that any legislation to regulate direct mail sweepstakes “should not prescribe commercial speech that runs afoul of the First Amendment.” Michael Pashby, executive vice president of the Magazine Publishers of America, said that the bills, while well-meaning, would impose undue burdens on commercial speech. Mandating “a single, uniform way in which material information is to be disclosed to consumers is far more restrictive than necessary,” added Linda Goldstein of the Promotion ! Marketing Association. They sugg ested the panel consider adopting more moderate provisions from the Deceptive Mail Prevention and Enforcement Act (S-335) sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and unanimously approved in August by the Senate. McHugh’s subcommittee is expected to decide the fate of the LoBiondo and Rogan bills some time in the fall when it considers the Collins measure. The industry representatives agreed that the Collins bill was superior because it creates the first national standard for direct mail sweepstakes. But the three said they were concerned with some of the bill’s provisions, including a proposed national opt-out database, and one giving the U.S. Postal Service sweeping authority to determine whether a sweepstakes mailing complies with the law. Legislation setting national standards for sweepstakes mailings should not “delegate authority to the USPS or any other federal agency that tramples a mailer’s First Amendment rights,” Cerasale said.
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