As state consumer privacy bills continue to mount, several contain unreasonable demands on merchants aiming to do business in those states. But for now at least, such merchants have dodged a bullet coming out of Vermont. On June 13th, following an aggressive push by a contingent of direct merchants, Gov. Phil Scott vetoed H.121, the consumer privacy bill that had passed out of the Vermont Legislature on May 10.
Then on June 17th, the Vermont House approved the veto override 128-17 following an hour-long floor debate. The Vermont Senate voted to sustain the veto 15-14, which prevents the bill from becoming law.
The bill was loosely modeled after a Connecticut statute that includes pro-consumer provisions, but also includes a prohibition on Private Right of Action (PRA), limiting enforcement to the state attorney general. But Vermont added numerous provisions and amendments including PRA and by the time the bill reached and passed the Legislature in May, it was completely unworkable for New England-based businesses like the Vermont Country Store.
Vermont Country Store CEO Jim Hall (left), who is also Board Chair of the American Commerce Marketing Association (ACMA), galvanized several other Vermont-based direct merchants and the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, to strongly urge Gov. Scott to veto the bill because of the significant, detrimental impacts that would have been caused by elements of the bill.
Hall and his colleagues, as well as the ACMA, a Washington-based advocacy group, will likely be busy with consumer privacy issues next year as Vermont will no doubt revive and contest the failed bill. Hall and the ACMA will continue to advocate for the adoption of the Connecticut consumer privacy language at a state and a federal level.
Where VT Went Awry from CT
The key sticky points with the failed Vermont bill included progressive consumer protections, such as data minimization, which when combined with the private right of action clause, would expose small to mid-size Vermont businesses to becoming targets of for settlements and/or litigation that they cannot afford.
Furthermore, the bill contained an enhanced consent provision, amounting to opt-in browse wrap agreements and invasive pop-ups that customers must agree with to share their data. This extra step decreases the likelihood that customers will complete transactions and would negatively impact sales into Vermont.
What’s more, as fewer customers opt in, compared to the number who opt out of data sharing, this results in much less customer data available to the platforms that help businesses offer curated advertising to their customers.
Below are some other noteworthy facts involved in VT H.121:
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Lynn Noble is ACMA’s Vice President, Industry Relations, having joined the ACMA in May 2015, following an extensive direct marketing career in private industry as well as the US Postal Service. He is responsible for leading the membership development efforts for the ACMA through new member acquisitions and providing enhanced member value.
Throughout his career, Lynn has held key marketing & sales positions with several leading direct marketers, as well as several high-level management positions with the US Postal Service.
In 2009, at the request of the ACMA, the US Postal Service initiated a new position of Catalog Manager to lead the Service’s efforts to stabilize and grow the catalog industry. Lynn returned to the USPS to lead those efforts and was instrumental to developing a stronger industry partnership between the Postal Service and the catalog industry. Serving as the product manager for catalogs, Lynn helped to raise the awareness of catalog-specific business challenges within the executive ranks of the USPS. During his tenure, the ACMA and catalog companies enjoyed a collaborative and progressive environment that produced more stabilized rates and inclusion in key USPS promotional opportunities.
Just prior to joining the ACMA Lynn was the USPS’s Manager, Strategic Account Operations, leading a team of senior sales professionals who focused exclusively in the Catalog, Mail Order, and E-commerce arena. In addition to his Postal positions, Lynn previously held key positions with leading direct marketing companies, including Cox Target Media, Market Logic, Catalina Marketing, Freesamples.com, and Advantage Direct.
Named Vice President & Deputy Director in January 2010, Miller came to the ACMA following a lengthy career of more than two decades following the catalog/multichannel/e-commerce/retail businesses. Reporting to ACMA president & executive director Hamilton Davison, Miller oversees marketing and communications, membership development, and organizes and oversees ACMA’s National Catalog Forum, while working with Davison on most of ACMA’s postal-related efforts.
Miller started his career as a reporter with Catalog Showroom Business, following a form of retailing that was led by the likes of the Service Merchandise and Best Products retail chains.
After several years of editor/reporter roles with business magazines that followed the toy and gift industries, Miller was named associate editor of Catalog Age magazine (now Multichannel Merchant) in 1986. He rose up the ranks at Catalog Age over the next 18 years to be the magazine’s senior news editor.
Beginning in the late ’80s, Miller became Catalog Age’s postal beat reporter, where he’d follow key postal events and pull out the key catalog mail-related issues for readers. During that time, he attended many Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) meetings and National Postal forums.
After leaving Catalog Age in 2004, Miller consulted with several catalogers and multichannel suppliers for a time, he was named news/website editor at Commercial Property News. Less than a year later, he was asked to take the reigns at Catalog Success (now All About ROI) where he served as editor-in- chief from 2006 till the end of 2009.
ACMA appointed Michael K. Plunkett as its President and Executive Director in January 2024, succeeding founder Hamilton Davison. Mr. Davison moved on to own and run a company. Mr. Plunkett brings years of executive leadership experience having been the President and CEO of the Association for Postal Commerce (PostCom) since 2017. In the newly-formed dual role, he will continue his current role with PostCom and the two organizations will operate separately.
During his tenure, PostCom has continued to lead the mailing and shipping industry on policy and regulatory matters and to work with Government agency partners to advance issues of importance to members. Mr. Plunkett is also President of the Delivery Technology Advocacy Council, a nonprofit launched in 2020 to concentrate on delivery and logistics technologies.
Prior to PostCom, Mr. Plunkett accumulated more than 25 years Postal experience with the United States Postal Service in numerous executive roles in operations, marketing, product development and pricing. As a leader within the Postal Service’s management team, Mr. Plunkett developed a well-earned reputation for innovation by leading efforts to develop pricing agreements for domestic services and in the development of the forever stamp and the priority mail flat rate box.
Mr. Plunkett has testified on pricing and policy issues before the Postal Regulatory Commission and Congressional subcommittees. He has authored and presented papers on postal policies, economics, and operations for National and International conferences.
Mr. Plunkett holds Masters Degrees in Business from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Sloan Fellow. He earned a Bachelor Degrees in Economics and Finance from the Pennsylvania State University.
