Two subcommittees of the U.S. Senate will hold their first joint hearings on a pair of bills to tighten government controls over the direct mail sweepstakes industry in March.
The Deceptive Mail Prevention and Enforcement Act (S-335), and the Deceptive Sweepstakes Mailings Elimination Act (S-336), are up for hearing before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the International Security, Proliferation and Federal Services subcommittee.
The two bills seek to strengthen existing laws prohibiting direct mail sweepstakes offers from looking like official government documents or implying that they are connected with or endorsed by the federal government. Also, the bills would give the U.S. Postal Inspection Service subpoena powers to probe fraudulent sweepstakes operations and subject violators to graduated civil penalties of between $10,000 and $2 million, depending on the size of the mailings.
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