Bill Description: Senate Bill 1111 would impose new regulations on providers of digital advertising.

Rating: -2

NOTE: The Senate Amendment to Senate Bill 1111 changed the bill considerably. The analysis has been updated but the rating hasn't changed.

Does it give government any new, additional, or expanded power to prohibit, restrict, or regulate activities in the free market? Conversely, does it eliminate or reduce government intervention in the market?

Senate Bill 1111, as amended in the Senate, would create Section 48-603H, Idaho Code, to impose new government regulations on digital advertisers.

The bill would require a digital advertiser to provide, upon request by the purchaser, verification of "geo-targeting and date" information related to the ads and "key performance indicators, as long as such key performance indicators requested by the purchaser were agreed to and specified in the original contract between the purchaser and the publisher."

An advertiser must provide this information within 30 days of the request.

Additionally, a digital advertising "publisher who does business in Idaho shall make available and shall maintain a method for a purchaser of a digital advertisement to request verification ... and for such purchaser to receive verification information from a publisher" for three months after the digital ads have concluded.

Most digital advertisers provide extensive metrics to clients, and those who don't have trouble competing in an already crowded marketplace. Digital advertising is a self-regulating market driven by consumer choice, and as such, government regulations are not necessary.

(-1)

Does it directly or indirectly create or increase penalties for victimless crimes or non-restorative penalties for non-violent crimes? Conversely, does it eliminate or decrease penalties for victimless crimes or non-restorative penalties for non-violent crimes?

The bill says, "A purchaser of a digital advertisement from a publisher who violates the provisions of this section may bring an action to recover actual damages. Alternatively, the purchaser, in lieu of actual damages, may elect to recover a refund of fees paid for a digital advertisement."

(-1)