In a post last month, we wrote that a Maine legislative committee had voted to repeal a recently-enacted online marketing law and predicted that the full legislature would soon repeal the law. Since then, Maine Governor John Baldacci signed an emergency measure to repeal the law.
Among other things, the Act To Prevent Predatory Marketing Practices Against Minors had prohibited companies from knowingly collecting personal information information from minors under 18 without parental consent. Although the Maine Attorney General had opined that the law might be unconstitutional and committed not to enforce the law, there had been a threat that private plaintiffs would use the law to challenge companies. Now that the law has been repealed, however, that threat is no longer present.