March 1999

State Telecommunications Legislation For 1999: Bills Under Consideration

BY JERRY CERASALE, DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Forty-nine states will meet in legislative session in 1999 (only Kentucky does not meet in regular session.) Following are some of the bills that will be considered this year:

Connecticut legislation prohibits telephone marketers from "using computers to randomly dial and detect working residential phone numbers."

A Montana bill requires telephone marketers to register and file a $50,000 bond with the state before doing business. Marketers required to register must keep the following records for 24 months:

• All substantially different advertising, brochures, telemarketing scripts and promotional materials,
• The name and last-known address of each prize recipient and the prize awarded,
• The name and last-known address of each consumer, the goods or services purchased, the date goods or services were shipped or provided, the amount of goods or services provided and the amount paid by the consumer for the goods or services,
• The name, last-known address, telephone number and job title for all current and former employees directly involved in telephone sales, and
• All written authorizations required to be provided or received by state law.

New Jersey legislation prohibits any public or private entity from renting, selling or otherwise releasing the names, addresses or telephone numbers of individuals to any other person for commercial use without the prior written or electronic consent of those individuals.

Another New Jersey bill requires registration of telephone marketers and also requires senders of commercial unsolicited e-mail to obtain consent before sending unsolicited e-mail advertising. The message must contain the word "advertisement" in its subject line and must include the name, mailing address, telephone number and return e-mail address of the sender and the date and time the message was sent. Advertisers must immediately discontinue sending commercial e-mail if the recipient so requests.

A third New Jersey bill, as amended in the assembly, requires a customer request for any change in telecommunications service providers to be processed within 30 business days of receipt of the change request.

Pending New Jersey legislation amends wiretapping law to require that all parties to a call must consent prior to the call being intercepted.

New York bills require marketers who acquire mail or telephone lists to provide written notification to each person on the list that they may have their names and addresses deleted from the list and may elect not to receive any more solicitations from that marketer.

Another New York bill requires senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail messages to include the following information at the beginning of each message:

• The name, physical address, e-mail address and telephone number of the sender of the message, and
• A statement that the recipient may elect not to receive any further unsolicited messages by either sending a reply to the original message with the word "remove" in the subject line or by sending written notice through the mail or informing the sender over the telephone.

New York legislation establishes a Task Force on Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail to study and make recommendations on the regulation of unsolicited e-mail advertisements.

A bill in North Dakota prohibits telephone solicitors from using either per-call or per-line blocking to withhold the display of their telephone numbers from caller identification devices.

A South Carolina bill repeals the 10 percent sales tax on the proceeds of 900 or 976 telephone services.

Another South Carolina proposal requires local telephone companies to establish and provide, at no cost to residential subscribers, a database of telephone numbers of residential subscribers who object to receiving unsolicited telephone sales calls. Local exchange carriers are required to mail to each residential subscriber a returnable postcard by which the subscriber may give notice to the LEC or its contractor of his or her objection to receiving solicitation calls.

Texas legislation requires telephone sellers soliciting sales or contributions to obtain written confirmation of an agreement made during a telephone solicitation. The confirmation must disclose all terms of the agreement, include the name and address of the person making the sale or receiving the contribution, an address and telephone number at which the person making the sale or receiving the contribution may be contacted during normal business hours, a statement of all amounts to be paid by the called person, the date of the agreement, a detailed description of any consumer good or service being sold and a notice that the called party is not obligated to pay any money unless the confirmation notice is signed and returned to the person making the solicitation.

A person who submits payment under an agreement made during a telephone solicitation but who does not return the confirmation notice may cancel the sale by notifying the solicitor in writing and returning any goods received. The seller must refund any payments or property received from the buyer within 10 business days of receiving the buyer's cancellation notice. The bill also requires the state Public Utility Commission to establish and maintain a quarterly list of the telephone numbers of residential customers who do not wish to receive telephone solicitation calls at home. Telephone solicitation calls made as an isolated occurrence by a solicitor who has adequate procedures to prevent calling consumers on the do-not-call list are not considered violations of the proposed law.

The legislation broadens the definition of "telephone solicitation" to include calls made to solicit an extension of credit for a consumer good or service, to obtain information that will or may be used to directly solicit a sale or to extend credit for the sale, to solicit a contribution of money or other property and a solicitation sent by mail or made by any other means to which the person solicited may respond by a telephone call to the telephone solicitor. In addition, many existing registration exemptions are deleted, including the service bureau example.

Virginia bills require the state to maintain a do-not-call list of persons who do not wish to receive telephone solicitation calls at home.

Jerry Cerasale is the senior vice president of government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association. He is in charge of DMA's contact with Congress, all federal agencies and state and local governments.