Sen. Lewis and Mass. Senate pass consumer protection bills

On April 25, 2024, Senator Jason Lewis joined his colleagues in the Massachusetts Senate to protect residents and consumers from predatory tactics and promote fairer interactions with businesses in the state – passing three bills on the same day. The bills mandate banning third-party residential electric suppliers, enhance the state’s protections for car buyers and mandate home insurers cover residential oil spill damages. On April 29 the Massachusetts House of Representatives referred the three bills to its Committee on Ways and Means.

“I’m very pleased that the state Senate is taking action to better protect Massachusetts residents from businesses that target consumers with scams and unfair, deceptive tactics,” said Senator Lewis. “This is especially true of third-party residential electric suppliers that have scammed hundreds of millions of dollars from seniors, low-income people, and other residents of the Commonwealth.”

An Act relative to electric ratepayer protections bans third-party electric suppliers from enrolling new individual residential customers in contracts and protects residents from unfair and deceptive practices in the competitive electric supply market. According to the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Public Utilities, Massachusetts’ consumers lost more than $577 million to competitive electric suppliers between July 2015 and June 2023. The industry uses deceptive advertising and marketing techniques to prey upon vulnerable consumers.

An Act relative to the remediation of home heating oil releases mandates that insurers in Massachusetts provide residential owners with insurance for damage to home and property caused by a leak in a residential liquid fuel tank or home fuel supply lines. An Act modernizing protections for consumers in automobile transactions creates legal safeguards for residents who purchase used and leased cars in Massachusetts by adding new consumer protections in the car buying process.