New York State advanced the FAIR Business Practices Act in legislation that would help
protect individuals, small businesses and non-profits from scams.
The FAIR Act, which refers to Fostering Affordability and Integrity through Reasonable Business, is meant to protect those most susceptible to harmful conduct placed by larger businesses and targeted cyber-attacks. If passed New York would be the 47th state to have legislation that protects small business owners.
The Identity Theft Resource Center found that 42% of small businesses lost money due to cyber-attacks in 2024. The New York City Sheriff’s Office found nearly 3,500 deed theft complaints from 2014 to 2023.
“The state must achieve the goal of deterring and remedying a broad range of unfair, deceptive, and abusive business practices, and leveling the playing field for the state’s many honest businesses and non-profits who treat their customers fairly,” according to a legal document.
New York City is home to 183,000 small businesses, which employ nearly half of NYC’s workforce. Denis Fitzgerald Jr., the owner of Fitzgerald’s Pub in Kips Bay, said the city was no help to the 33-year-old family-owned business.
“The city and the state were no help to us,” he told The Ticker. “The federal government were help at that time, to give them credit.”
When businesses began to open after COVID-19 restrictions lifted, Fitzgerald noticed a trend of calls every day of people wanting to give him money. While he never accepted the money, Fitzgerald explained that those who are not careful can lose everything they own.
“You probably will be handing over your business and lose it,” he said. “It’s like the Nigerian prince [scam].”
Fitzgerald feels that the city and the state need to do more when protecting small businesses in all matters, including cyber-attacks, regulations, application processes, and licenses. He explained that small business owners are already playing the roles of “lawyer and an architect.”
Protection from the city and state would guide both rising entrepreneurs and small-business owners through the challenges of managing a business and allow them to prosper. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 20% of small businesses close in the first year and 50% in their fifth year.
As New York is in the process of enacting this new law, other states are already ahead of the game in advancing protections for businesses. For example, the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act already “protects New Jersey residents from consumer fraud and abuses committed by the biggest financial institutions in the world as well as smaller companies.”
Other states like California, Virginia, and Iowa also have acts in place to protect small businesses.
The bill has now been introduced to the New York State Senate and Assembly, where it awaits their decision. If approved, it will then move on to Gov. Kathy Hochul for final approval before becoming a law.
