I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 90

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.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 3, 2001

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Energy and Commerce

A BILL

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,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

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

5 of 2001’’.
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1 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF INTERFERENCE WITH CALLER

2 IDENTIFICATION SERVICES.

3 Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

4 U.S.C. 227) is amended—

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

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

7 (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol8 lowing new subsection:

9 ‘‘(e) PROHIBITION ON INTERFERENCE WITH CALLER

10 IDENTIFICATION SERVICES.—

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

12 person within the United States, in making any tele13 phone solicitation—

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

15 capability of a caller identification service to ac16 cess or provide to the recipient of the telephone

17 call involved in the solicitation any information

18 regarding the call that such service is capable

19 of providing; and

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

21 information in a manner that is accessible by a

22 caller identification service, if such person has

23 capability to provide such information in such a

24 manner.

25 For purposes of this section, the use of a tele26 communications service or equipment that is incapa-
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1 ble of transmitting caller identification information

2 shall not, of itself, constitute interference with or

3 circumvention of the capability of a caller identifica4 tion service to access or provide such information.

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

6 after the enactment of the Know Your Caller Act of

7 2001, the Commission shall prescribe regulations to

8 implement this subsection, which shall—

9 ‘‘(A) specify that the information regard10 ing a call that the prohibition under paragraph

11 (1) applies to includes—

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

13 who makes the telephone call involved in

14 the solicitation;

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

16 on whose behalf the solicitation is made;

17 and

18 ‘‘(iii) a valid and working telephone

19 number at which the person or entity on

20 whose behalf the telephone solicitation is

21 made may be reached during regular busi22 ness hours for the purpose of requesting

23 that the recipient of the solicitation be

24 placed on the do-not-call list required

25 under section 64.1200 of the Commission’s
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1 regulations (47 CFR 64.1200) to be main2 tained by such person or entity; and

3 ‘‘(B) provide that any person or entity who

4 receives a request from a person to be placed on

5 such do-not-call list may not use such person’s

6 name and telephone number for telemarketing,

7 mail marketing, or other marketing purpose

8 (including transfer or sale to any other entity

9 for marketing use) other than enforcement of

10 such list.

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

12 entity may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or

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

14 court of that State—

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

16 subsection or the regulations prescribed under

17 this subsection to enjoin such violation;

18 ‘‘(B) an action to recover for actual mone19 tary loss from such a violation, or to receive

20 $500 in damages for each such violation, which21 ever is greater; or

22 ‘‘(C) both such actions.

23 If the court finds that the defendant willfully or

24 knowingly violated this subsection or the regulations

25 prescribed under this subsection, the court may, in
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1 its discretion, increase the amount of the award to

2 an amount equal to not more than 3 times the

3 amount available under subparagraph (B) of this

4 paragraph.

5 ‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub6 section:

7 ‘‘(A) CALLER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE.—

8 The term ‘caller identification service’ means

9 any service or device designed to provide the

10 user of the service or device with the telephone

11 number of an incoming telephone call.

12 ‘‘(B) TELEPHONE CALL.—The term ‘tele13 phone call’ means any telephone call or other

14 transmission which is made to or received at a

15 telephone number of any type of telephone serv16 ice and includes telephone calls made using the

17 Internet (irrespective of the type of customer

18 premises equipment used in connection with

19 such services). Such term also includes calls

20 made by an automatic telephone dialing system,

21 an integrated services digital network, and a

22 commercial mobile radio source.’’.

23 SEC. 3. EFFECT ON STATE LAW AND STATE ACTIONS.

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

25 section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
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1 U.S.C. 227(f)(1)), as so redesignated by section 2(1) of

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

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

4 (1) and (2) of subsection (e),’’.

5 (b) ACTIONS BY STATES.—The first sentence of sub6 section (g)(1) of section 227 of the Communications Act

7 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(g)(1)), as so redesignated by sec8 tion 2(1) of this Act, is further amended by striking ‘‘tele9 phone calls’’ and inserting ‘‘telephone solicitations, tele10 phone calls, or’’.

11 SEC. 4. STUDY REGARDING TRANSMISSION OF CALLER

12 IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.

13 The Federal Communications Commission shall con14 duct a study to determine—

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

16 switched network to transmit the information that

17 can be accessed by caller identification services;

18 (2) the types of telecommunications equipment

19 being used in the telemarketing industry, the extent

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

21 equipment to transmit the information that can be

22 accessed by caller identification services; and

23 (3) the changes to the public switched network

24 and to the types of telecommunications equipment

25 commonly being used in the telemarketing industry
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1 that would be necessary to provide for the public

2 switched network to be able to transmit caller identi3 fication information on all telephone calls, and the

4 costs (including costs to the telemarketing industry)

5 to implement such changes.

6 The Commission shall complete the study and submit a

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

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

9 Act.

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