BILL NUMBER:S5976

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the general business law, in relation
to the sale of wireless communications devices; and to amend the penal
law, in relation to possession of five or more stolen wireless
communications devices by a business

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

The purpose of this bill is to shift some of the responsibility to the
commercial retail seller of a wireless communication device to ensure
that such device was not stolen from a legitimate owner of a cell
phone to then, in turn, be sold on the black market to another person
at a substantially lower than retail price. Further, those businesses
that sell cell phones, in the normal course of business, that possess
five or more such cell phones that cannot offer at least some evidence
that they obtained such cell phones through legitimate suppliers would
be presumed to possess stolen property. The ultimate goal of this bill
being to curb the heightened incidence of the theft of newly released
cell phone models, particularly when their public demand is enhanced
when newly released.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Adds a new General Business Law section 392-aa to mandate
that. all businesses that, in the normal course of their business,
              

offer for sale cell phones must. give to such purchaser a written
receipt for that transaction. Further, that such written receipt.
must include the serial number and international mobile equipment
identifier that is unique to such device. In addition, since many
consumers may lose or not retain such written sales receipt that
contains this identifying information, the selling business must also
send such information electronically to such purchaser so that the
purchaser has the ability to keep such information on the cell phone
in question. The first. violation of this section shall be punishable
by a fine of no more than $ 500, and any subsequent. violation of this
provision of law within one year shall be punishable by a fine of up
to $ 750 and a sentence of imprisonment for not more than 30 days, or
both.

Section 2: Amends Penal Law section 165.55 to add a new subdivision 5
that relates to the presumptions used when prosecuting the crime of
criminal possession of stolen property. Under this bill, a business
that, in the normal course of business, sells cell phones, that
possesses five items or more of stolen property, which is a cell
phone, is presumed to knowingly possess stolen property (and hence is
guilty of this crime), if such person, is unable to produce some sort
of reasonable or commercially acceptable proof of origin that
demonstrates that such devices came directly from the manufacturer or
authorized commercial distributor of such device or from a bona fide
owner who purchased such cell phone legitimately.

JUSTIFICATION:

With the advent of the new release of more advanced cell phones, such
as the iPhone 5, in which the public's desire to purchase such cell
phones is enhanced due to sizable multi-media advertising campaigns


launched by its manufactures to sell additional phones, the incidence
of theft of such phones has increased. As cited by the NYC Police
Department, the incidence of theft of newly released cell phones sky
rockets as the public's demand for such newly released cell phones
occur. The crime statistics indicate that the theft of such phones
increases significantly once such phones have been newly released.

What has been occurring is that thieves steal such high value phones
at an increased rate because of the enhanced demand by the public for
such newly released phones. Further, since such thieves have the
ability to clean the identification of the previous legitimate cell
phone owner, these cell phones can be readily sold on the black market
to businesses that sell these phones to the general public at a much
reduce price. Further, since records indicating that the phone had a
previous owner have been deleted, the unsuspecting, and perhaps
suspecting new purchaser can easily purchase such fenced phone at a
reduced price that is below the cost of purchasing such phone from a
bona fide retailer.

What this bill does is amend the law so that the purchaser of a cell
phone must do his or her due diligence to ensure that the phone is
being purchased from a bona fide manufacturer, dealer, or person who
legitimately owned the phone. This is done by requiring the seller to
issue and such new purchaser to obtain proof of origin that. such
device has not be stolen to then be resold to the purchaser in
question.It is the bill sponsor's hope that this new due diligence
standard will curb a seller and purchaser's desire to buy stolen
property.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:  None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

Ninety days after it shall have become law.