I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7120 

To direct the Federal Trade Commission to revise the Telemarketing Sales 

Rule to require disclosures for telemarketing using artificial intelligence 

and to provide for enhanced penalties for violations involving artificial 

intelligence voice or text message impersonation, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 29, 2024 

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To direct the Federal Trade Commission to revise the Telemarketing Sales Rule to require disclosures for telemarketing using artificial intelligence and to provide for 

enhanced penalties for violations involving artificial intelligence voice or text message impersonation, and for 

other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Restrictions on Uti5 lizing Realistic Electronic Artificial Language Act’’ or the 

6 ‘‘R U REAL Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE REQUIRED FOR TELEMARKETING 

2 USING AI. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 

4 date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Trade Com5 mission shall revise the Telemarketing Sales Rule (part 

6 310 of title 16, Code of Federal Regulations) so as to add 

7 a requirement that, if a person makes a call or sends a 

8 text message with respect to telemarketing and uses artifi9 cial intelligence in such call or text message to emulate 

10 a human being, such person shall disclose at the beginning 

11 of such call or text message the fact that artificial intel12 ligence is being used. 

13 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘‘tele14 marketing’’ and ‘‘text message’’ have the meanings given 

15 such terms in section 7 of the Telemarketing and Con16 sumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act (15 U.S.C. 6106), 

17 as amended by this Act. 

18 SEC. 3. ENHANCED PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF TELE19 MARKETING RULES INVOLVING AI VOICE OR 

20 TEXT MESSAGE IMPERSONATION. 

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 6 of the Telemarketing 

22 and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act (15 

23 U.S.C. 6105) is amended by adding at the end the fol24 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘(e) ENHANCED PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS IN2 VOLVING AI VOICE OR TEXT MESSAGE IMPERSON3 ATION.— 

4 ‘‘(1) PENALTIES UNDER FEDERAL TRADE COM5 MISSION ACT.—Notwithstanding subsection (b), in 

6 the case of a violation described in paragraph (2), 

7 the maximum amount of the civil penalty that may 

8 be imposed for such violation under subsection (l) or 

9 (m) (as the case may be) of section 5 of the Federal 

10 Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) shall be twice 

11 the maximum amount that may be imposed for such 

12 violation under such subsection without regard to 

13 this subsection. 

14 ‘‘(2) VIOLATIONS DESCRIBED.—The violations 

15 described in this paragraph are the following: 

16 ‘‘(A) A violation of a rule prescribed by the 

17 Commission under section 3 with respect to 

18 which the party making the call or sending the 

19 text message uses artificial intelligence to im20 personate an individual or entity with the intent 

21 to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain 

22 anything of value. 

23 ‘‘(B) A violation of a cease-and-desist 

24 order issued by the Commission under section 

25 5(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 


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1 U.S.C. 45(b)) with respect to a violation de2 scribed in subparagraph (A).’’. 

3 (b) APPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by sub4 section (a) shall apply with respect to violations occurring 

5 after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

6 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 

7 Section 7 of the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud 

8 and Abuse Prevention Act (15 U.S.C. 6106) is amended— 

9 (1) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘or text mes10 sage’’ after ‘‘telephone call’’; and 

11 (2) by adding at the end the following new 

12 paragraph: 

13 ‘‘(5) TEXT MESSAGE.— 

14 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘text mes15 sage’ means a message consisting of text, im16 ages, sounds, or other information that is trans17 mitted to or from a device that is identified as 

18 the receiving or transmitting device by means of 

19 a 10-digit telephone number, N11 service code, 

20 short code telephone number, or email address, 

21 or that is transmitted through application-to22 person messaging, and includes— 

23 ‘‘(i) a short message service (com24 monly referred to as ‘SMS’) message; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) a multimedia message service 

2 (commonly referred to as ‘MMS’) message; 

3 and 

4 ‘‘(iii) a rich communication service 

5 (commonly referred to as ‘RCS’) message. 

6 ‘‘(B) LIMITATION.—The term ‘text mes7 sage’ does not include a real-time, two-way 

8 voice or video communication.’’. 

Æ 


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