ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Now that the dust has settled after a particularly ambitious legislative session for the Maryland General Assembly, it’s yielded a better view of what passed.
Among those passed during the session are some that give consumers more protection from financial crimes, that target suspicious shipments to pharmacies, and that provide a way to track sexual-assault-evidence kits in an effort to bolster prosecutions of sexual assault cases.
The Financial Consumer Protection Act of 2018 increases the civil penalties that would have to be paid, from $1,000 to $10,000 per violation of the act. For subsequent violations, that penalty would jump to as much as $25,000. The bill also creates a student loan ombudsman position in the state’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
Thanks to the bills passed in the 2018 General Assembly session, Attorney General Brian Frosh said, “great strides” have been made towards better protecting Maryland consumers.
The state’s opioid crisis generated a bill aimed at targeting suspicious shipments of opioids. Under Senate Bill 982, drug distributors have to report “suspicious” orders for controlled dangerous substances.
Also among the bills passed during the session was a bill that works to protect Maryland’s elderly from financial exploitation.
