BATON ROUGE -- Retailers should not request nor require customers to provide their ZIP codes, telephone numbers or home addresses while completing a business transactions when using cash or credit cards, the House Commerce Committee decided Tuesday. The panel voted unanimously for House Bill 128 by Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, sending it to the House floor after a...
BATON ROUGE -- Retailers should not request nor require customers to provide their ZIP codes, telephone numbers or home addresses while completing a business transactions when using cash or credit cards, the House Commerce Committee decided Tuesday.
Rep. Austin Badon, D-New OrleansThe panel voted unanimously for House Bill 128 by Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, sending it to the House floor after a close 7-6 vote against deferring it.
Badon said the bill is designed to protect consumers' privacy from merchants who seek the information to help in their sales or marketing plans.
Badon told retailers and others who opposed the bill he is open to making changes on the House floor.
As the bill was approved, no retailer could ask for a customer's personal data when completing "a consumer transaction using cash, credit card, debit card or gift card as a form of payment."
The bill allows the information to be sought when the customer pays by check or when purchasing a motor vehicle using any form of payment.
Badon said he was asked for personal information when he went to a pet store to buy dog food. He said he asked the clerk, "Why do I need to to give you my phone number to buy dog food?"
He said some of his constituents have also been asked for their ZIP codes, telephone numbers or other personal information at a check-out counter.
"Retailers collect this information," he said. "You may want to buy pantyhose or a pair of socks and become a part of someone's marketing campaign" in the process.
Badon said that a woman who is overheard giving out her telephone number or address to a cashier could wind up being a victim of stalking. "I have felt uncomfortable giving out my address or phone number in a long (checkout) line," said Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, a member of the panel.
The bill was amended to allow using personal data to pay utility bills.
Rep. Major Thibaut, D-New Roads, said instead of creating another law to ban the practice, customers can just refuse to give the information and shop at another store that doesn't ask those questions.
"By law, you don't have to give them that information," Thibaut said.
Jessica Elliott, a lobbyist for the Louisiana Retailers Association, said that the way Badon's bill is drafted, it would prohibit a pharmacy clerk from asking the name of a customer who stopped by to pick up a prescription.
Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5810.