CRANSTON, R.I. (WJAR) — Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha is raising concerns over the state's consumer protection law, which he says is failing to protect Rhode Islanders from unfair and deceptive business practices.
Under the state's current law, the attorney general's office isn't allowed to go after businesses regulated by state or federal agencies. That includes utility companies, insurance companies, TV cable providers and most lenders and creditors.
"We have found workarounds sometimes to be able to handle that through our general power, but if we had that authority based in statute, we would be able to do far more," Neronha said.
The National Consumer Law Center has labeled Rhode Island's Deceptive Trade Practices Act, or UDAP statute, as one of the worst in the nation. The report notes that Rhode Island is the only state that doesn’t have a civil penalty for initial violations of the law.
Neronha is once again proposing an amendment to overhaul the statute.
He first filed legislation to do so in 2019, following a gas outage on Aquidneck Island.
"The legislature was passing resolutions asking for this office to do its own investigation, separate apart from the Division of Public Utilities," Neronha said. "It really hampered our ability to do that because our statute doesn't allow us to do that."
The I-Team discovered the issue stems from court decisions in Rhode Island that interpret the statute as being applicable to almost no consumer transactions.
Those court decisions were made over a decade ago, but state lawmakers have failed to update them. As a result, several industries overseen by a state or federal regulatory body are completely exempt from the statute.
Neronha said the impact has become even more apparent over this past year, as his office has received a record number of consumer complaints related to the pandemic.
He believes some of those complaints would have been easier to investigate if the statute had already been updated.
"I think particularly with COVID-19, many members of the General Assembly now understand how important strong consumer protection laws are," said Neronha.
If the legislation passes, it would allow the state attorney general's office to zero in on specific companies that have racked up dozens of complaints.
"Think of a bank that is really impacting Rhode Islanders on a statewide basis, not one at a time. They are regulated by federal and state agencies, and so that makes it harder for us to do our own independent investigation there," said Neronha.
It's an additional layer of accountability that many other states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, already have in place.
"If our statute is one of the two worst in the nation, it seems to me that we should fix that," Neronha said.
The proposal has previously received backlash from the banking and health insurance industries, which have argued they already have to abide by state and federal regulations.
It's unclear when state lawmakers will take up the attorney general's proposal.