Bill Giving Consumers On-the-spot Store Rebates Approved By Assembly

Legislation Assembly Democrats John Burzichelli, Paul Moriarty, Vincent Prieto and John Wisniewski sponsored to require retailers to charge consumers an advertised after-rebate price – rather than making buyers send in coupons or log on to manufacturer’s web sites to claim their savings – was approved Thursday by the Assembly.

“We’ve cut red tape for businesses and now we must cut red tape for consumers,” said Burzichelli (D-Gloucester/Cumberland/Salem). “Customers should not be deceptively lured into stores by low prices that only exist after they take the product home, cut apart the packaging, fill out aggravating paperwork, and then wait weeks or months for a check. Retailers who want to advertise a ‘post-rebate’ price as the actual cost to the consumer should be the ones who have to jump through hoops to claim a money-back offer.”

“Quite simply, the price shown in the newspaper should be the price the consumer pays at the cash register,” said Moriarty (D-Gloucester/Camden). “Filling out rebate forms can be confusing, complicated, and drawn-out. Consumers should not have to navigate a sea of fine print and corporate red tape when they could have been charged an honest price to begin with.”

“This bill would not prevent manufacturers from offering rebates to New Jersey consumers, but would only prohibit stores from deceptively passing off a net price to unwitting customers,” said Prieto (D-Hudson). “It’s a consumer protection measure that makes common sense.”

“Research show that about 40 percent of manufacturer rebates are never redeemed, costing consumers more than $2 billion annually,” said Wisniewski (D-Middlesex). “This bill doesn’t prevent rebates from being offered, but simply brings more truth in advertising, which is always a good thing.”

Under the legislation (A-1511), retailers that advertise a product’s “net price” – the price after a manufacturer’s rebate is applied – would be required to charge that price at the time of sale. It then would be a retailer’s responsibility to complete the rebate redemption process.

The bill would allow retailers to advertise rebates by displaying the net price of the item of merchandise if the actual selling price of the merchandise is disclosed in the same font and size as the net price and clear and conspicuous notice is provided in the advertisement that a mail-in rebate is required to achieve the lower net price.

Violations of the measure would be punishable under the state’s consumer fraud act, with fines of up to $10,000 for a first offense. Repeat offenses could be punished by up to $20,000 in fines, as well as injunctive relief, triple damages, and restitution.

The bill will be referred to the Senate for more consideration. TLS.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Amazing that our legislators are wasting their time on this. If they can’t think of more important topics to work on, I’d be glad to help!

  2. (moderated) democrats sticking their nose into the private sector again, if chrisitie signs this stupid nonsense he will prove him self a liberal (which we already know he is)

  3. retailers offer rebates because they know the majority do not get redeemed so its a good way to get sales. If they are forced to offer everyone the rebate on the spot, they will no longer offer those rebates, SO in the end, the consumer loses

  4. All of the commentators thus far, seem to have missed the point. This legislation has nothing to do with anyone offering rebates to NJ consumers. The legislation merely prevents stores from making believe in their advertisements that the price is the net price (net of rebate) as opposed to the gross price.

  5. nj assembly out to hurt businesses. they will stop offering the rebate if they have do deal with the paperwork. this is bad for the customers, who will be forced to shop online and not in store where they can get their items immediately, and is bad for store owners who have lost customers to online sales.

  6. The big retailers already do this …. Why are the Democrats wasting so much time doing nothing? Oh yes, I remember, it is an election year and they are trying to fool us into thinking they are doing something. Time for us to make the senate a part time job with NO benefits!!

Comments are closed.