Senate Standing Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection

Good morning and welcome to the Hawaii State Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection. This, is our Wednesday, March 18, 2026, 09:30AM CPN committee agenda in Conference Room 229 at the Hawaii State Capitol. This meeting is being streamed live on YouTube. And in the event we need to abruptly postpone the hearing or reconvene, that's gonna be on Tuesday next Tuesday, March 24 in Conference Room 229 at, 09:45am, and then we'll repost an agenda. We'll, in case we need to defer action on any measures, that will be the date that we reconvene on these measures.

Again 03/24/202609:45AM in Conference Room 229. First up we have House Bill 1511 House Draft two relating to consumer protection. This measure prohibits entities from distributing unsolicited mail or electronic mail that employs high pressure tactics or is reasonably likely to cause a consumer to believe that the sender is affiliated with another entity that the sender is not actually affiliated with. First up, Raji Tolentino, Office of Consumer Protection and Support.

Good morning, chairman. Vice chair. Good morning.

Testimony. Thank you for standing on your testimony. Next up, we have the DCCA insurance division in support.

Good morning. Hi, good morning chair, vice chair, members of the committee. Jamie Alamo on behalf of the insurance division. We stand on a written testimony in support and available for questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Bill Gunnison for service contract industry council with comments. Good morning.

Morning, chair and vice chair, members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify this morning. My name is Bill Gunnison, and I'm an attorney with the Service Contract Industry Council. The Service Contract Industry Council is a trade association that represents the national service contract industry,

including the providers, administrators, insurers, manufacturers, and retailers that offer service contracts in Hawaii. Service contracts, often referred to as protection plans, are offered on a wide range of products from vehicles to home appliances to cell phones, and they cover the cost to repair or replace the product if it breaks.

Our association and our members support the goal of House bill 1511 and support efforts to crack down on deceptive mailers in the service contract and warranty space. These types of mailers give the industry a bad name, and our members welcome efforts to address the bad actors who are tarnishing the reputation of the broader industry.

So we are very supportive of the underlying objective of this bill. In the written testimony we submitted, we did suggest a few clarifying amendments. The intent of those amendments is simply to ensure that legitimate communications between our members and their customers, things like renewal notices and other routine correspondence, is not inadvertently swept into the scope of the bill.

If these suggested amendments in our written testimony are not workable for any reason, we would welcome the opportunity to work with the bill sponsor, the committee, and any other interested stakeholders to find a solution.

We appreciate the legislature's work in this area and applaud the effort to stop deceptive mailers that harm both consumers in Hawaii and the responsible companies operating in the space. Thank you again for your time this morning.

Thank you very much.

Melissa Pavosek for the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association in opposition and Will Caron in support. Is there anyone else who would like to testify on this measure? Seeing none, members questions? Okay. If there are no questions, we'll move on to

We also have written testimony and support from Brian Anderson of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Hawaii. Mark Seckman from the American Property Casualty Insurance Association with comments.

First up, we have Gary Suganuma Suganuma for the Hawaii Department of Taxation with comments.

Thank you, mister Avila, for standing on your testimony. Tanya Machika. Tanya Machika for the tax foundation with comments online.

the next measure. House bill 1535 house draft two relating to automated external defibrillators. This measure establishes an income tax for automated external defibrillator devices that are installed and placed in service in certain places of public accommodation located in the state.

Aloha. Hi. For Tanya Machika, Tax Foundation of Hawaii stands on our written comments. Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to testify on this measure? Members, questions? I don't know who to ask.

Thank you for standing on your testimony. We also have written comments from the Department of Health, written testimony in support from Stephanie Donahoe of the Kahala Coast Resort Association, and supporting testimony from Melissa Palvicek for the Building Owners and Managers Association of Hawaii.

Senator McKelvey?

Thank you, chair. This might be Department of Health. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I guess, is it necessary that this bill move forward that there'd be a tax credit attached to it?

I'm not the person to answer that question, unfortunately.

Garret Hall with the Department of Health. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to answer that question.

I was just curious. Yep.

The next measure is HB 1753, relating to social media. This measure requires certain social media platforms to provide an accessible mechanism for users to delete their accounts on the platform and permanently erase all personal information and sensitive personal information associated with the deleted accounts. First up, OCP with comments. Thank you very much. TechNet with comments. And Will Caron in support.

Is there anyone else who would like to testify? Members, questions? Okay, we'll move on. Next measure is HB 1810, House Draft 2, relating to charitable solicitation. This measure establishes prompt payment and financial reporting requirements for professional solicitors that sell donated or collected non-perishable tangible property on behalf of charitable organizations. First up, Goodwill Hawaii in sport. Good morning.

Good morning, Chair and Vice Chair. Thank you for allowing me to come today and testify. Goodwill, I'm the President and CEO of Goodwill Hawaii. Goodwill Hawaii has been a local nonprofit, its own 501C3 since 1959. And we help over 8,000 people a year in workforce development, job training, job counseling, and job placement, as well as we work with those vulnerable populations like the disabled and at risk youth.

We are here today to offer our strong support for HB 1810, HD 2. And we have been in this charitable space for many, many years. Obviously, the community knows us for our thrift stores, and we rely on the community's good grace to donate to us.

And this bill is all about transparency and trust to our donors. Anyone who's donating to Goodwill Hawaii or to anywhere else should be able to trust that their donations are going to, in fact, benefit the charity that they claim to benefit. So this bill is all about transparency and regaining the donors' trust.

And I've spoken about this before, but I would just highlight, because I have limited time, that Goodwill Hawaii is one of over 10,000 registered charities each and every year that pays into a fund to enforce charitable tax laws. And so the Attorney General does have, they are the recipient of this fund.

So they do have the work, the means in which to enforce this bill and all the other charitable tax laws. It currently stands, the fund currently stands at $5 million at the 2024. And so we hope that this bill will pass with those amendments.

Thank you very much. Dave Erdman, Retail Merchants of Hawaii, in support. I think with written testimony. We also have written testimony from Hugh Jones of Ashford and Wriston in support. Jodi Robinson of the Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations in support. Noriko Namiki of YWCA Oahu in support.

And late testimony from Michelle Bartell of Aloha United Way and Maile Kawamura from the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii, both in support. Is there anyone else who would like to testify? Members, questions? Okay, if not, we'll move on. The next measure is House Bill 2282, House Draft 1, relating to insurance.

This measure requires insurers to provide explanation of premium increases upon request, clarifies grounds for denial, suspension, and revocation of an adjuster and bill reviewer license, clarifies procedures for denying, suspending, and revoking an insurance producer license, and amends the notice requirements for cancellation or non renewal of a property insurance policy. First up, Insurance Division in support.

Morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Matthew Tsujimura on behalf of the Insurance Division. The division stands in strong support of HB 2282, HD 1. We feel that it makes targeted consumer focused improvements to improve transparency as well as to update and align enforcement and licensure requirements, as well as making some technical amendments to just update the code. But happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. OCP in support. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who'd like to testify? That's right. Wait. Did I get that wrong? Oh, yeah. No. That's it. Okay. We'll move on to the last bill. Oh, any questions? Sorry.

I have a comment, not a question.

Go ahead. I got all discombobulated. Any questions? Vice Chair.

Question for Insurance Division. Has your division received complaints from individual premium holders or, say, condo associations in the last three years, which would support kind of some of the recommendations for changes that the division is supporting?

I would have to go back. Sorry. I'm Matthew Tsujimura on behalf of the Insurance Division. I would have to go back to our investigative unit to clarify whether or the amounts of complaints we've received specifically from condo associations. I can tell you the proposed amendments in HB. Yeah.

So well, so the main change in this is more so based upon some of the legislation that has that has passed and has been introduced over the past few years with regards to premium transparency as well as notification of non renewal and cancellation. Just to kind of find the middle ground of where those requirements will still be met.

But it won't be onerous to the fact that people will be getting inundated with mail that maybe they don't want or need. But with regards to the adjuster language, that's more so to update the code because prior to this there was no grounds for the division to deny someone's application for, to become an adjuster.

Perhaps if you could just have your division provide a listing of some of the complaints that have been received in this time frame because I think that would also help us address many of the concerns that we have received from condo premium holders. So in kind of supporting your legislation, that would be helpful.

Yeah. We can definitely get that information to you.

That have taken the form of pieces of legislation that you testified on.

Absolutely. We can get that to you. Yeah.

Just a quick comment. I just noticed that when we had the Senate Bills came through with the very same things that are in this House Bills, you guys either commented or opposed, but now you're in strong support. It just appears to me that it's more the who the person's name on the bill is than the bill itself. Thank you.

Thank you for joining us at the table. Okay. Next measure, House Bill 2614, House Draft 1, relating to deceptive practices. This measure requires merchants that sell cosmetics to accept returns of new or unopened goods with specified time frames and clarifies the diff the definition of "conspicuous sign" and expands required placement of return and refund policy signage. The only testifier I have registered on this bill is the Office of Consumer Protection, in support.

Thank you. And, and I recognize this is unopposed at this point. And there might be a couple of reasons for that. This bill attempts to address the situation that we've become aware of for a number of years now with stores that are brick and mortar, and they're frequently located in tourist areas, and they use high pressure sales tactics, and as a result of these high pressure sales tactics, combined with a no returns policy, we've received over 180 complaints in the last five years. The amount of people that are complaining about this is very significant.

I wanted to supplement the record that we've laid, because we cited to those 180 complaints. We've since conducted a survey of the complainants, and I want to share with you some of the results of this survey. We've had 117 survey responses, and we asked, of the people who answered the following question, 90% responded no. At the time of your purchase, did you understand the store's policy regarding returns and refunds? 90% said no.

Did you attempt to return a product or cancel a service only to be refused by a store representative? 93% said yes. Do you feel misled as a result of purchasing products without knowledge of the store's no refund policy? 98% said yes. So, what we're proposing in this bill is simply that because of a demonstrated problem that we need these stores to be banned from adopting a no returns policy.

That's all we're proposing here, and we would submit that these answers clearly demonstrate the need that these stores should not have a no returns policy. We've narrowly crafted the definition so that we've carved out folks who should not be included. And I can leave it at that, but thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who would like to testify? Okay. Members, any questions?

It's the makeup store one. Right?

Okay. So, we're, but for the fire, we were being inundated. I mean, the one thing of the fire, I guess, the one tiny little thing is they're gone. I don't mind. But are you seeing them popping? Like, what areas are you seeing them really pop on? Like, they're popping up in, like, malls, like, say, malls like Alwan or Windward. I mean, is there any areas where they're really starting to grow and become a bigger, bigger problem?

Correct.

These stores are, by and large, well established. They have leases, on the ground leases with, International Marketplace, with Ala Moana. They have ground leases in Haleiwa, ground leases in Lihue. So, they are well established in the state, and but for the fires in Lahaina, they would continue to have a presence in Lahaina. The thing that is, is kind of unique about this is that we're aware that there are other competitors in the same space, well established national change that have the policy that we're going to accept returns of unopened of unopened cosmetics, new goods, and it's just a certain subset of stores that says, we're not going to accept returns.

You can imagine that's that's—what that does to the salesperson. Right? That empowers the salesperson to engage in these pressure tactics knowing there's nothing on the back end that the store is gonna be accountable for because they don't actually have to take the product back. That's what we're trying to address with this bill. I think it would really go a long way to helping.

Please go ahead.

Have you seen any of these stores before, like, firsthand?

Okay. And then.

I have.

Proridge.

Proridge. Okay. So, I was just gonna say, yeah, because we have—there is a few of, there were a few of them. I don't know if Proridge still exist. That's particular store. But does this also address them marketing outside of the confines of their own brick and mortar I guess too? Because that's kind of, like, what they do.

This bill does not take that approach. This bill—simply the most important part of this bill is to require them to accept returns within that time window. Okay. This bill does not address the confines issue, which was part of the approach that actually Maui County took a few years ago. They adopted this approach where they were gonna regulate the salespersons and prohibit them from coming out of the store to pull people into the store.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. How much money do you need for the signs?

We don't need money for the signs if you pass the no returns.

So, okay. So,you would not oppose an amendment striking the appropriation and making the date effective upon approval?

We would love this bill to continue to Ways and Means because it would enable us to have the conversation. But I would say that we don't have close striking.

Right now, it's going to Ways and Means with a blank appropriation in here where don't have a lot of appropriation capacity.

And if it's money for signs, I feel like what I'm reading is that this might not be the most critical piece of this legislation.

That's correct. It's not the most critical piece of this legislation. It, it's, we, we, wanted to have in the, the optionality here with this bill that if you didn't approve of the no returns policy, then we would have a backup where we would say, alright, violators, you get warning letters from us.

Eventually, you're gonna have to put up these big yellow signs, these big street signs so everybody will know what your policy is. But if the policy is that you have to accept returns within the window, then there's no, no need to put the sign up. Right? Because every single one of those stores will have to accept returns. There's no choice at that point and no need for the sign.

Okay. Okay. Any other questions, members? Okay. If not, thank you very much.

We'll take a quick recess.

Reconvening on this 9:30am agenda on Wednesday, March 18, 2026 to make decisions on the bills we just heard in committee. The first is House Bill 1511, House Draft 2. The recommendation is to pass this measure with amendments.

We will add a definition for the term affiliated, add a definition for the term unsolicited, and add language based on the SCIC testimony to clarify that the bill does not prohibit legitimate communications with existing customers. Members, any comments or questions? Seeing none. Passing with amendments. Chair votes aye.

Thank you. Vice Chair also votes aye. [Roll Call] Recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. Next measure is House Bill 1535, House Draft 2, relating to automated external defibrillators. The recommendation on this measure is to pass with amendments adopting the Department of Health recommended amendments around the registry. And then the DOTAX date implementing amendments. Any discussion? Yes, Senator.

I'm good to support the bill moving forward. It's important. However, given your earlier comments which are totally on point about our needs and priorities with everything going on in the world. I just have a concern with the tax credit but support the bill moving on.

Thank you. If there are no other comments or questions, then Vice Chair, passing with amendments. Chair votes aye.

Thank you. Of the Members present, any voting with reservations or objections? Hearing none. Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much. Next measure is House Bill 1642, House Draft 1, relating to consumer protection. I appreciate the willingness of all the testifiers coming to have a discussion about this. The recommendation is to defer action on this measure until Tuesday, March 24 at 9:45am in this Conference Room 229 while we try and work out some amendments to pass this bill.

The next measure is House Bill 1753, House Draft 2, relating to social media. The recommendation on this measure is to also defer action on it until Tuesday, March 24, 2026 at 9:45am in Conference Room 229 while we contemplate any potential amendments.

Next up is House Bill 1810, House Draft 2, relating to charitable solicitation. The recommendation is to pass this measure with a defective effective date of July 1, 2050. Members, any discussion? Okay. Seeing none. Passing with amendments. Chair votes aye.

Thank you. Of the Members present, any voting with reservations? Objections? Hearing none. Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much. The next measure is House Bill 2282, House Draft 1, relating to insurance. The recommendation is to pass this measure with a defective effective date of July 1, 2050. Members, any comments or questions? Okay. If not, passing with amendments. Chair votes aye.

Thank you. Of the Members present, any voting with reservations, objections? Hearing none. Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. And the last measure on this agenda is House Bill 2614, House Draft 1, relating to deceptive practices. The recommendation is to pass this measure out with technical non substantive amendments, striking the appropriation section and amending the bill to be effective upon approval. Members, any questions or comments? Okay. Seeing none. Passing with amendments. Chair votes aye.

Thank you. Of the Members present, are there any voting with reservations? Objections? Hearing none. Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much. We're adjourned.