Cal. PUC § 2893.2 — California Code / Code puc / Division 1 / Part 2 / Chapter 10 / Article 3 / Section 2893.2
Section 2893.2
Status: in_force

(a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:

(1) “Call” means the initiation of telecommunications service by accessing a number issued pursuant to the North American Numbering Plan, irrespective of whether the call is initiated using a traditional landline over the public switched telephone network, using mobile telephony service, or using interconnected VoIP service network.

(2) “Caller” means a person or entity that places a call.

(3) “Caller identification information,” “caller identification service,” “information regarding the origination,” and “interconnected VoIP Service” have the same meanings as defined in Section 64.1600 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations as of January 1, 2019.

(4) “Enter” means to input data by whatever means into a computer or telephone system.

(5) “False government information” means caller identification information that misrepresents the identity of the caller to the recipient of a call, or to the network itself, by presenting information regarding the origination of the call as being from the federal government, state government, a local government, or any agent thereof.

(6) “Federal government” means the United States, or any agency or instrumentality of the United States.

(7) “Local government” means any city, city and county, county, public district, public corporation, authority, agency, board, commission, or other public entity in the state.

(8) “Phone number” means an access number issued pursuant to the North American Numbering Plan.

(9) “Telecommunications” and “telecommunications service” have the same meanings as defined in Section 153 of Title 47 of the United States Code as of January 1, 2019.

(b) (1) A caller shall not enter, or cause to be entered, false government information into a caller identification system with the intent to mislead, cause harm, deceive, or defraud the recipient of the call.

(2) A person or entity may not make a call knowing that false government information was entered into the caller identification system with the intent to mislead, cause harm, deceive, or defraud the recipient of the call.

(c) This section does not apply to any of the following:

(1) The blocking of caller identification information.

(2) Any law enforcement agency of the federal government or a state or local government.

(3) Any intelligence or security agency of the federal government.

(4) A telecommunications, broadband, or interconnected VoIP service provider that is acting solely as an intermediary for the transmission of telecommunications service between the caller and the recipient.

(d) Any person or entity that violates this section may be enjoined in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(e) (1) Any person or entity that knowingly violates this section shall be subject to a civil penalty of up to ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each violation.

(2) An action to enforce this section may be brought by a city attorney, district attorney, or the Attorney General.

(3) If during the investigation of a complaint for possible violation of Article 1 (commencing with Section 2871), the commission determines that a violation of this section may have occurred, the commission shall notify both the district attorney of the county where the call was received and the Attorney General of the potential violation.

(4) This section shall apply in addition to any other applicable law prohibiting the same or similar activity.

(f) The provisions of this section are severable. If any provision of this section or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application.