107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 90

AN ACT

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit telemarketers from interfering with the caller identification service of any person to whom a

telephone solicitation is made, and for other purposes.
107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 90

AN ACT

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit telemarketers from interfering with the caller identification

service of any person to whom a telephone solicitation

is made, 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,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Know Your Caller Act

3 of 2001’’.

4 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF INTERFERENCE WITH CALLER

5 IDENTIFICATION SERVICES.

6 Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

7 U.S.C. 227) is amended—

8 (1) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as

9 subsections (f) and (g), respectively; and

10 (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol11 lowing new subsection:

12 ‘‘(e) PROHIBITION ON INTERFERENCE WITH CALLER

13 IDENTIFICATION SERVICES.—

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any

15 person within the United States, in making any tele16 phone solicitation—

17 ‘‘(A) to interfere with or circumvent the

18 capability of a caller identification service to ac19 cess or provide to the recipient of the telephone

20 call involved in the solicitation any information

21 regarding the call that such service is capable

22 of providing; and

23 ‘‘(B) to fail to provide caller identification

24 information in a manner that is accessible by a

25 caller identification service, if such person has
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1 capability to provide such information in such a

2 manner.

3 For purposes of this section, the use of a tele4 communications service or equipment that is incapa5 ble of transmitting caller identification information

6 shall not, of itself, constitute interference with or

7 circumvention of the capability of a caller identifica8 tion service to access or provide such information.

9 ‘‘(2) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 6 months

10 after the enactment of the Know Your Caller Act of

11 2001, the Commission shall prescribe regulations to

12 implement this subsection, which shall—

13 ‘‘(A) specify that the information regard14 ing a call that the prohibition under paragraph

15 (1) applies to includes—

16 ‘‘(i) the name of the person or entity

17 who makes the telephone call involved in

18 the solicitation;

19 ‘‘(ii) the name of the person or entity

20 on whose behalf the solicitation is made;

21 and

22 ‘‘(iii) a valid and working telephone

23 number at which the person or entity on

24 whose behalf the telephone solicitation is

25 made may be reached during regular busi-
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1 ness hours for the purpose of requesting

2 that the recipient of the solicitation be

3 placed on the do-not-call list required

4 under section 64.1200 of the Commission’s

5 regulations (47 CFR 64.1200) to be main6 tained by such person or entity; and

7 ‘‘(B) provide that a person or entity may

8 not use such a do-not-call list for any purpose

9 (including transfer or sale to any other person

10 or entity for marketing use) other than enforce11 ment of such list.

12 ‘‘(3) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—A person or

13 entity may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or

14 rules of court of a State, bring in an appropriate

15 court of that State—

16 ‘‘(A) an action based on a violation of this

17 subsection or the regulations prescribed under

18 this subsection to enjoin such violation;

19 ‘‘(B) an action to recover for actual mone20 tary loss from such a violation, or to receive

21 $500 in damages for each such violation, which22 ever is greater; or

23 ‘‘(C) both such actions.

24 If the court finds that the defendant willfully or

25 knowingly violated this subsection or the regulations
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1 prescribed under this subsection, the court may, in

2 its discretion, increase the amount of the award to

3 an amount equal to not more than 3 times the

4 amount available under subparagraph (B) of this

5 paragraph.

6 ‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub7 section:

8 ‘‘(A) CALLER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE.—

9 The term ‘caller identification service’ means

10 any service or device designed to provide the

11 user of the service or device with the telephone

12 number of an incoming telephone call.

13 ‘‘(B) TELEPHONE CALL.—The term ‘tele14 phone call’ means any telephone call or other

15 transmission which is made to or received at a

16 telephone number of any type of telephone serv17 ice and includes telephone calls made using the

18 Internet (irrespective of the type of customer

19 premises equipment used in connection with

20 such services). Such term also includes calls

21 made by an automatic telephone dialing system,

22 an integrated services digital network, and a

23 commercial mobile radio source.’’.
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1 SEC. 3. EFFECT ON STATE LAW AND STATE ACTIONS.

2 (a) EFFECT ON STATE LAW.—Subsection (f)(1) of

3 section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

4 U.S.C. 227(f)(1)), as so redesignated by section 2(1) of

5 this Act, is further amended by inserting after ‘‘subsection

6 (d)’’ the following: ‘‘and the prohibition under paragraphs

7 (1) and (2) of subsection (e),’’.

8 (b) ACTIONS BY STATES.—The first sentence of sub9 section (g)(1) of section 227 of the Communications Act

10 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(g)(1)), as so redesignated by sec11 tion 2(1) of this Act, is further amended by striking ‘‘tele12 phone calls’’ and inserting ‘‘telephone solicitations, tele13 phone calls,’’.

14 SEC. 4. STUDY REGARDING TRANSMISSION OF CALLER

15 IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.

16 The Federal Communications Commission shall con17 duct a study to determine—

18 (1) the extent of the capability of the public

19 switched network to transmit the information that

20 can be accessed by caller identification services;

21 (2) the types of telecommunications equipment

22 being used in the telemarketing industry, the extent

23 of such use, and the capabilities of such types of

24 equipment to transmit the information that can be

25 accessed by caller identification services; and
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1 (3) the changes to the public switched network

2 and to the types of telecommunications equipment

3 commonly being used in the telemarketing industry

4 that would be necessary to provide for the public

5 switched network to be able to transmit caller identi6 fication information on all telephone calls, and the

7 costs (including costs to the telemarketing industry)

8 to implement such changes.

9 The Commission shall complete the study and submit a

10 report to the Congress on the results of the study, not

11 later than one year after the date of the enactment of this

12 Act.

Passed the House of Representatives December 4,

2001.

Attest:

Clerk.