I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1933

To reduce unsolicited commercial electronic mail and to protect children 

from sexually oriented advertisements. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 1, 2003

Ms. LOFGREN (for herself, Mrs. TAUSCHER, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. FRANK of 

Massachusetts, and Ms. HARMAN) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 

as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL

To reduce unsolicited commercial electronic mail and to 

protect children from sexually oriented advertisements.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Restrict and Eliminate 

5 the Delivery of Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail or 

6 Spam Act of 2003’’ or the ‘‘REDUCE Spam Act of 

7 2003’’. 
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1 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act: 

3 (1) COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL MES4 SAGE.—The term ‘‘commercial electronic mail mes5 sage’’ means any electronic mail message the pri6 mary purpose of which is the commercial advertise7 ment or promotion of a commercial product or serv8 ice. An electronic mail message shall not be consid9 ered to be a commercial electronic mail message 

10 solely because such message includes a reference to 

11 a commercial entity that serves to identify the send12 er or a reference or link to an Internet website oper13 ated for a commercial purpose. An electronic mail 

14 message shall not be considered to be a commercial 

15 electronic mail message if the sender has established 

16 a personal relationship with the recipient. 

17 (2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

18 means the Federal Trade Commission. 

19 (3) ELECTRONIC MAIL ADDRESS.—

20 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘electronic 

21 mail address’’ means a destination (commonly 

22 expressed as a string of characters) to which an 

23 electronic mail message can be sent or deliv24 ered. 

25 (B) INCLUSION.—In the case of the Inter26 net, the term ‘‘electronic mail address’’ may in-
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1 clude an electronic mail address consisting of a 

2 user name or mailbox (commonly referred to as 

3 the ‘‘local part’’) and a reference to an Internet 

4 domain (commonly referred to as the ‘‘domain 

5 part’’). 

6 (4) FTC ACT.—The term ‘‘FTC Act’’ means 

7 the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et 

8 seq.). 

9 (5) HEADER INFORMATION.—The term ‘‘header 

10 information’’ means the source, destination, and 

11 routing information attached to an electronic mail 

12 message, including the originating domain name and 

13 originating electronic mail address. 

14 (6) INITIATE.—The term ‘‘initiate’’, when used 

15 with respect to a commercial electronic mail mes16 sage, means to originate such message or to procure 

17 the transmission of such message, either directly or 

18 through an agent, but shall not include actions that 

19 constitute routine conveyance of such message by a 

20 provider of Internet access service. For purposes of 

21 this Act, more than 1 person may be considered to 

22 have initiated the same commercial electronic mail 

23 message. 
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1 (7) INTERNET.—The term ‘‘Internet’’ has the 

2 meaning given that term in section 231(e)(3) of the 

3 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 231(e)(3)). 

4 (8) INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE.—The term 

5 ‘‘Internet access service’’ has the meaning given that 

6 term in section 231(e)(4) of the Communications 

7 Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 231(e)(4)). 

8 (9) PRE-EXISTING BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP.—

9 The term ‘‘pre-existing business relationship’’, when 

10 used with respect to a commercial electronic mail 

11 message, means that either of the following cir12 cumstances exist: 

13 (A) PREVIOUS BUSINESS TRANSACTION.—

14 (i) Within the 5-year period ending 

15 upon receipt of a commercial electronic 

16 mail message, there has been a business 

17 transaction between the sender and the re18 cipient, including a transaction involving 

19 the provision, free of charge, of informa20 tion, goods, or services requested by the re21 cipient; and 

22 (ii) the recipient was, at the time of 

23 such transaction or thereafter, provided a 

24 clear and conspicuous notice of an oppor25 tunity not to receive further commercial
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1 electronic mail messages from the sender 

2 and has not exercised such opportunity. 

3 (B) OPT IN.—The recipient has given the 

4 sender permission to initiate commercial elec5 tronic mail messages to the electronic mail ad6 dress of the recipient and has not subsequently 

7 revoked such permission. 

8 If a sender operates through separate lines of busi9 ness or divisions and holds itself out to the recipient 

10 as that particular line of business or division, then 

11 such line of business or division shall be treated as 

12 the sender for purposes of this paragraph. 

13 (10) RECIPIENT.—The term ‘‘recipient’’, when 

14 used with respect to a commercial electronic mail 

15 message, means the addressee of such message. 

16 (11) SENDER.—The term ‘‘sender’’, when used 

17 with respect to a commercial electronic mail mes18 sage, means the person who initiates such message. 

19 The term ‘‘sender’’ does not include a provider of 

20 Internet access service whose role with respect to 

21 electronic mail messages is limited to handling, 

22 transmitting, retransmitting, or relaying such mes23 sages. 

24 (12) UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC

25 MAIL MESSAGE.—The term ‘‘unsolicited commercial 
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1 electronic mail message’’ means any commercial 

2 electronic mail message that meets both of the fol3 lowing requirements: 

4 (A) The electronic mail message is ad5 dressed to a recipient with whom the sender 

6 does not have a pre-existing business relation7 ship. 

8 (B) The electronic mail message is not 

9 sent at the request of, or with the express con10 sent of, the recipient. 

11 SEC. 3. COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL CONTAINING 

12 FRAUDULENT HEADER OR ROUTING INFOR13 MATION. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 63 of title 18, United 

15 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol16 lowing:

17 ‘‘§ 1351. Unsolicited commercial electronic mail con18 taining fraudulent header information 

19 ‘‘(a) Whoever initiates the transmission of any unso20 licited commercial electronic mail message, with knowledge 

21 and intent that the message contains or is accompanied 

22 by header information that is false or materially mis23 leading, shall be fined or imprisoned for not more than 

24 1 year, or both, under this title. 
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1 ‘‘(b) For purposes of this section, the terms ‘unsolic2 ited commercial electronic mail message’ and ‘header in3 formation’ have the meanings given such terms in section 

4 2 of the REDUCE Spam Act of 2003.’’. 

5 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The chapter anal6 ysis at the beginning of chapter 63 of title 18, United 

7 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol8 lowing:

‘‘1351. Unsolicited commercial electronic mail.’’.

9 SEC. 4. REQUIREMENTS FOR UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL 

10 ELECTRONIC MAIL. 

11 (a) SUBJECT LINE REQUIREMENTS.—It shall be un12 lawful for any person to initiate the transmission of an 

13 unsolicited commercial electronic mail message to an elec14 tronic mail address within the United States, unless the 

15 subject line includes: 

16 (1) COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS.—Except 

17 in the case of an unsolicited commercial electronic 

18 mail message described in paragraph (2)—

19 (A) an identification that complies with the 

20 standards adopted by the Internet Engineering 

21 Task Force for identification of unsolicited 

22 commercial electronic mail messages; or 

23 (B) in the case of the absence of such 

24 standards, ‘‘ADV:’’ as the first four characters. 
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1 (2) ADULT ADVERTISEMENTS.—In the case of 

2 an unsolicited commercial electronic mail message 

3 that contains material that may only be viewed, pur4 chased, rented, leased, or held in possession by an 

5 individual 18 years of age and older—

6 (A) an identification that complies with the 

7 standards adopted by the Internet Engineering 

8 Task Force for identification of adult-oriented 

9 unsolicited commercial electronic mail messages; 

10 or 

11 (B) in the case of the absence of such 

12 standards, ‘‘ADV:ADLT’’ as the first eight 

13 characters. 

14 (b) RETURN ADDRESS REQUIREMENTS.—

15 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—It shall be unlawful for 

16 any person to initiate the transmission of an unsolic17 ited commercial electronic mail message to an elec18 tronic mail address within the United States, unless 

19 the sender establishes a valid sender-operated return 

20 electronic mail address where the recipient may no21 tify the sender not to send any further commercial 

22 electronic mail messages. 

23 (2) INCLUDED STATEMENT.—All unsolicited 

24 commercial electronic mail messages subject to this 

25 subsection shall include a statement informing the 
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1 recipient of the valid return electronic mail address 

2 referred to in paragraph (1). 

3 (3) PROHIBITION OF SENDING AFTER OBJEC4 TION.—Upon notification or confirmation by a re5 cipient of his or her request not to receive any fur6 ther unsolicited commercial electronic mail messages, 

7 it shall be unlawful for a person, or anyone acting 

8 on that person’s behalf, to send any unsolicited com9 mercial electronic mail message to that recipient. 

10 Such a request shall be deemed to terminate a pre11 existing business relationship for purposes of deter12 mining whether subsequent messages are unsolicited 

13 commercial electronic mail messages. 

14 (c) HEADER AND SUBJECT HEADING REQUIRE15 MENTS.—

16 (1) FALSE OR MISLEADING HEADER INFORMA17 TION.—It shall be unlawful for any person to initiate 

18 the transmission of an unsolicited commercial elec19 tronic mail message that such person knows, or rea20 sonably should know, contains or is accompanied by 

21 header information that is false or materially mis22 leading. 

23 (2) DECEPTIVE SUBJECT HEADINGS.—It shall 

24 be unlawful for any person to initiate the trans25 mission of an unsolicited commercial electronic mail
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1 message with a subject heading that such person 

2 knows, or reasonably should know, is likely to mis3 lead a recipient, acting reasonably under the cir4 cumstances, about a material fact regarding the con5 tents or subject matter of the message. 

6 (d) AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE.—A person who violates 

7 subsection (a) or (b) shall not be liable if—

8 (1)(A) the person has established and imple9 mented, with due care, reasonable practices and pro10 cedures to effectively prevent such violations; and 

11 (B) the violation occurred despite good faith ef12 forts to maintain compliance with such practices and 

13 procedures; or 

14 (2) within the 2-day period ending upon the ini15 tiation of the transmission of the unsolicited com16 mercial electronic mail message in violation of sub17 section (a) or (b), such person initiated the trans18 mission of such message, or one substantially similar 

19 to it, to less than 1,000 electronic mail addresses. 

20 SEC. 5. ENFORCEMENT. 

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 4 of this Act shall be en22 forced by the Commission under the FTC Act. For pur23 poses of such Commission enforcement, a violation of this 

24 Act shall be treated as a violation of a rule under section 
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1 18 (15 U.S.C. 57a) of the FTC Act prohibiting an unfair 

2 or deceptive act or practice. 

3 (b) RULEMAKING.—Within 30 days after the date of 

4 enactment of this Act, the Commission shall institute a 

5 rulemaking proceeding concerning enforcement of this 

6 Act. The rules adopted by the Commission shall prevent 

7 violations of section 4 of this Act in the same manner, 

8 by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction, pow9 ers, and duties as though all applicable terms and provi10 sions of the FTC Act were incorporated into and made 

11 a part of this section, except that the rules shall also in12 clude—

13 (1) procedures to minimize the burden of sub14 mitting a complaint to the Commission concerning a 

15 violation of section 4 of this Act, including proce16 dures to allow the electronic submission of com17 plaints to the Commission; 

18 (2) civil penalties for violations of section 4 of 

19 this Act in an amount sufficient to effectively deter 

20 future violations and procedures to collect such pen21 alties if the Commission determines that a violation 

22 of section 4 of this Act has occurred; 

23 (3) procedures for the Commission to grant a 

24 reward of not less than 20 percent of the total civil 

25 penalty imposed to the first person that—
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1 (A) identifies the person in violation of sec2 tion 4 of this Act; and 

3 (B) supplies information that leads to the 

4 successful collection of a civil penalty by the 

5 Commission; and 

6 (4) civil penalties for knowingly submitting a 

7 false complaint to the Commission. 

8 (c) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 180 days after 

9 the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 

10 conclude the rulemaking proceeding initiated under sub11 section (b) and shall prescribe implementing regulations. 

12 SEC. 6. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION. 

13 (a) ACTION AUTHORIZED.—A recipient of an unsolic14 ited commercial electronic mail message, or a provider of 

15 Internet access service, adversely affected by a violation 

16 of section 4 may bring a civil action in any district court 

17 of the United States with jurisdiction over the defendant 

18 to—

19 (1) enjoin further violation by the defendant; or 

20 (2) recover damages in an amount equal to—

21 (A) actual monetary loss incurred by the 

22 recipient or provider of Internet access service 

23 as a result of such violation; or 

24 (B) at the discretion of the court, the 

25 amount determined under subsection (b). 
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1 (b) STATUTORY DAMAGES.—For purposes of sub2 section (a)(2)(B), the amount determined under this sub3 section is the amount calculated by multiplying the num4 ber of willful, knowing, or negligent violations by an 

5 amount, in the discretion of the court, of up to $10. In 

6 determining the per-violation penalty under this sub7 section, the court shall take into account the degree of 

8 culpability, any history of prior such conduct, ability to 

9 pay, the extent of economic gain resulting from the viola10 tion, and such other matters as justice may require. 

11 (c) ATTORNEY FEES.—In any action brought pursu12 ant to subsection (a), the court may, in its discretion, re13 quire an undertaking for the payment of the costs of such 

14 action, and assess reasonable costs, including reasonable 

15 attorneys’ fees, against any party. 

16 SEC. 7. INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE PROVIDERS. 

17 Nothing in this Act shall be construed—

18 (1) to enlarge or diminish the application of 

19 chapter 121 of title 18, relating to when a provider 

20 of Internet access service may disclose customer 

21 communications or records; 

22 (2) to require a provider of Internet access 

23 service to block, transmit, route, relay, handle, or 

24 store certain types of electronic mail messages; 
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1 (3) to prevent or limit, in any way, a provider 

2 of Internet access service from adopting a policy re3 garding commercial electronic mail messages, includ4 ing a policy of declining to transmit certain types of 

5 commercial electronic mail messages, or from enforc6 ing such policy through technical means, through 

7 contract, or pursuant to any other provision of Fed8 eral, State, or local criminal or civil law; or 

9 (4) to render lawful any such policy that is un10 lawful under any other provision of law. 

11 SEC. 8. EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS. 

12 (a) FEDERAL LAW.—Nothing in this Act shall be 

13 construed to impair the enforcement of section 223 or 231 

14 of the Communications Act of 1934, chapter 71 (relating 

15 to obscenity) or 110 (relating to sexual exploitation of chil16 dren) of title 18, United States Code, or any other Federal 

17 criminal statute. 

18 (b) STATE LAW.—No State or local government may 

19 impose any civil liability for commercial activities or ac20 tions in interstate or foreign commerce in connection with 

21 an activity or action described in section 4 of this Act that 

22 is inconsistent with the treatment of such activities or ac23 tions under this Act, except that this Act shall not pre24 empt any civil remedy under State trespass, contract, or 

25 tort law or under any provision of Federal, State, or local 
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1 criminal law or any civil remedy available under such law 

2 that relates to acts of computer fraud or abuse arising 

3 from the unauthorized transmission of unsolicited com4 mercial electronic mail messages. 

5 SEC. 9. FTC STUDY. 

6 Not later than 24 months after the date of enactment 

7 of this Act, the Commission, in consultation with appro8 priate agencies, shall submit a report to the Congress that 

9 provides a detailed analysis of the effectiveness and en10 forcement of the provisions of this Act and the need, if 

11 any, for Congress to modify such provisions. 

12 SEC. 10. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

13 The provisions of this Act shall take effect 180 days 

14 after the date of the enactment of this Act, except that 

15 subsections (b) and (d) of section 5 shall take effect upon 

16 the date of the enactment of this Act.

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