UPDATE FLORIDA CIVIL RIGHTS ACT TO ENSURE FAIRNESS IN ONLINE COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS
UPDATE FLORIDA CIVIL RIGHTS ACT TO ENSURE FAIRNESS IN ONLINE COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS
The Issue
A Florida business owner and civil rights advocate has launched a new initiative to urge the state legislature to update the Florida Civil Rights Act (FCRA) of 1992, which currently does not address racial discrimination issues involving online commerce such as short-term house sharing, ride-sharing services or business credit reporting.
The initiative, Update the Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992 – Bringing Fairness into the 21st Century, urges Floridians to sign a petition at www.UpdateFloridaCivilRightsAct.com
Guillermo Jalil, who owns a Florida private investigation business, hopes to get a groundswell of support for an update to the act to present to Florida lawmakers. He organized the effort after he went to the Florida Commission on Human Relations (FCHR) to address a concern he had about a negative business credit rating, which was based on profiling variables rather than solely on ability to pay bills and handle finances responsibly. Under the FCRA, “all persons are entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, handicap, familial status or religion.”
The State of Florida, however, does not have the authority under FCRA to investigate an illegal act of discrimination when the refusal of service occurs outside of a “covered establishment,” which is defined as “a building with a roof.” So discrimination involving online short-term house sharing services like AirBnb or ridesharing services like Uber fall outside of the jurisdiction of the FCRA. It’s primarily because the internet was in its infancy in 1991 when the FCRA was passed and online consumer platforms had not been created. That means when a service is booked from an online platform, ethnic minority groups may be refused service, provided inferior service, delivered inferior products or charged higher rates and not have the FCHR to address those issues.
"It is time the Florida Civil Rights Act catches up to the internet," Jalil said. “It’s clear that the Civil Rights Act of 1992 must be moved into the 21st Century. We owe it to Florida tourists, to Florida residents, and to Florida business owners."
Beyond online house-sharing or ride-sharing platforms, business credit reporting companies are immune from investigation in Florida if they discriminate against minority-owned businesses. Because business credit reports are ordered online, the FCHR doesn't have the authority to investigate a complaint.
“This effort also is about making sure that minority-owned Florida businesses are treated fairly by business credit reporting companies,” Jalil said. “Loans, federal contracting and other opportunities for business owners of color are at risk if business credit reports are scoring credibility partly on demographics, rent district and per capita income. Further, scoring the credibility of a business based on the association of a business owner to others has nothing to do with a business owner’s ability to handle financial obligations responsibly.”
Issues concerning laws that do not effectively protect minority consumers in an online environment aren’t unique to Jalil’s case or the State of Florida. In 2017, two legal researchers, Aaron Belzer and Nancy Leong from the University of Denver, wrote a report titled, “The New Public Accommodations: Race Discrimination in the Platform Economy,” which examines ineffective efforts to regulate online commerce relative to race nationwide. The researchers argue that existing public accommodation laws are not always adequate to address the unique elements of the online economy. Evidence suggests that in many cases, “race discrimination affects the platform economy in much the same way that it affects the traditional economy,” the report states. Because such platforms often make photographs and other information available through the creation of user profiles, those “profiles may trigger conscious and unconscious bias and result in discrimination even if the parties never meet in person.” These systems also depend on rating systems of users, which also may introduce bias that negatively impact minority users, the researchers found.
About UpdateFloridaCivilRightsAct.com: Update the Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992 is an equity and social responsibility movement that aims to enlist Floridians in an effort to influence the update of FCRA so that Florida consumers, visitors and minority-owned businesses have an adequate opportunity to address bias issues in doing business on online consumer platforms. To sign the petition or for more information, visit: www.UpdateFloridaCivilRightsAct.com
FACEBOOK: @FloridaCivilRightsAct
TWITTER @ECivilRightsUSA
TWITTER #UpdateFloridaRights
The Issue
A Florida business owner and civil rights advocate has launched a new initiative to urge the state legislature to update the Florida Civil Rights Act (FCRA) of 1992, which currently does not address racial discrimination issues involving online commerce such as short-term house sharing, ride-sharing services or business credit reporting.
The initiative, Update the Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992 – Bringing Fairness into the 21st Century, urges Floridians to sign a petition at www.UpdateFloridaCivilRightsAct.com
Guillermo Jalil, who owns a Florida private investigation business, hopes to get a groundswell of support for an update to the act to present to Florida lawmakers. He organized the effort after he went to the Florida Commission on Human Relations (FCHR) to address a concern he had about a negative business credit rating, which was based on profiling variables rather than solely on ability to pay bills and handle finances responsibly. Under the FCRA, “all persons are entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, handicap, familial status or religion.”
The State of Florida, however, does not have the authority under FCRA to investigate an illegal act of discrimination when the refusal of service occurs outside of a “covered establishment,” which is defined as “a building with a roof.” So discrimination involving online short-term house sharing services like AirBnb or ridesharing services like Uber fall outside of the jurisdiction of the FCRA. It’s primarily because the internet was in its infancy in 1991 when the FCRA was passed and online consumer platforms had not been created. That means when a service is booked from an online platform, ethnic minority groups may be refused service, provided inferior service, delivered inferior products or charged higher rates and not have the FCHR to address those issues.
"It is time the Florida Civil Rights Act catches up to the internet," Jalil said. “It’s clear that the Civil Rights Act of 1992 must be moved into the 21st Century. We owe it to Florida tourists, to Florida residents, and to Florida business owners."
Beyond online house-sharing or ride-sharing platforms, business credit reporting companies are immune from investigation in Florida if they discriminate against minority-owned businesses. Because business credit reports are ordered online, the FCHR doesn't have the authority to investigate a complaint.
“This effort also is about making sure that minority-owned Florida businesses are treated fairly by business credit reporting companies,” Jalil said. “Loans, federal contracting and other opportunities for business owners of color are at risk if business credit reports are scoring credibility partly on demographics, rent district and per capita income. Further, scoring the credibility of a business based on the association of a business owner to others has nothing to do with a business owner’s ability to handle financial obligations responsibly.”
Issues concerning laws that do not effectively protect minority consumers in an online environment aren’t unique to Jalil’s case or the State of Florida. In 2017, two legal researchers, Aaron Belzer and Nancy Leong from the University of Denver, wrote a report titled, “The New Public Accommodations: Race Discrimination in the Platform Economy,” which examines ineffective efforts to regulate online commerce relative to race nationwide. The researchers argue that existing public accommodation laws are not always adequate to address the unique elements of the online economy. Evidence suggests that in many cases, “race discrimination affects the platform economy in much the same way that it affects the traditional economy,” the report states. Because such platforms often make photographs and other information available through the creation of user profiles, those “profiles may trigger conscious and unconscious bias and result in discrimination even if the parties never meet in person.” These systems also depend on rating systems of users, which also may introduce bias that negatively impact minority users, the researchers found.
About UpdateFloridaCivilRightsAct.com: Update the Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992 is an equity and social responsibility movement that aims to enlist Floridians in an effort to influence the update of FCRA so that Florida consumers, visitors and minority-owned businesses have an adequate opportunity to address bias issues in doing business on online consumer platforms. To sign the petition or for more information, visit: www.UpdateFloridaCivilRightsAct.com
FACEBOOK: @FloridaCivilRightsAct
TWITTER @ECivilRightsUSA
TWITTER #UpdateFloridaRights
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Petition created on October 23, 2019