Grassroots Group Strikes Major Blow for Entrepreneurs and Consumers by Spearheading Defeat of Anti-Competitive Design Law!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 19, 2007

CONTACT:

Patti Morrow
livefreedesign@yahoo.com
Live Free and Design website: www.livefreeanddesign.org

Concord, New Hampshire – New Hampshire entrepreneurs and consumers dodged a bullet last month when the New Hampshire legislature declined to enact legislation designed to help a small group of industry insiders monopolize the interior design industry here. Led by Live Free and Design! a grassroots association of interior designers and industry partners, a successful effort was made to resist the push for unnecessary, anti-competitive, anti-consumer interior design regulation in New Hampshire, by educating the legislators and the public about the misinformation being circulated by proponents of interior design licensing.

The House Executive Committee conducted a hearing on March 15th on the merits of HB-881, a bill which would have severely limited who may practice interior design and who may use the title “interior designer” If enacted, the law would have been one of the most restrictive in the country, putting many small business owners out of business. According to Patti Morrow, Director and Founder of Live Free and Design!, the compelling testimony from members of design community as well as other citizens and activists is believed to have persuaded the House Executive Committee to recommend that the full House vote to kill HB-881.

Three major points presented in Morrow’s testimony at the Committee hearing were:

1. There is absolutely no evidence that unlicensed interior designers present any threat to public health, safety or any other public interest. The Bill’s proponents, the New Hampshire Interior Design Coalition, failed to offer any such evidence.

2. After 30 years of constant lobbying by the pro-regulation faction, only four states in the entire country regulate who may practice interior design and in one of those states (Alabama) a court has declared the law unconstitutional; in the last five years, more than two dozen attempts for licensing in the U.S. have been rejected.

3. The Federal Trade Commission concluded that the regulation of interior design would result in increased costs and fewer consumer choices. Elimination of competition and denial of free enterprise is the true objective of interior design regulation.

Also testifying in opposition was Clark Neily, Senior Attorney at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, VA, who described HB-881’s serious constitutional defects that would render it vulnerable to legal challenge on free speech, occupational freedom, equal protection, and the free flow of interstate commerce grounds.

Proponents of the Bill were shocked and dismayed at the sheer number of designers opposed to licensing at the hearing, later stating that they were “battered by unsuspected opposition” and lamented the need to go through the “torment of the hearing.” “I don’t understand why they were so surprised,” said Morrow, “I was a member of the New Hampshire Interior Design Coalition (the main supporter of HB-881) during 2005 and 2006, and repeatedly pointed out challenges licensing would bring to our state, but to no avail. I also met with a member of their legislative committee in February, at which time I again outlined our objections to HB-881.”

Unfortunately, what happened in New Hampshire is not an isolated incident. Texas and Massachusetts (www.interiordesignfreedom.org) are just two other states where our counterpart grassroots organizations are also fighting for their right to practice their chosen trade without interference from industry cartels. Massachusetts is of particular interest, as it would restrict the free-flow of interstate commerce currently enjoyed by both Massachusetts and New Hampshire interior designers.

It is a serious step to restrict the marketplace, thereby depriving some people of their livelihood. Live Free and Design! will continue to be a watchdog and activist group aimed at protecting the practice of honest, hard working interior designers in New Hampshire. . . and the United States.