II

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2029

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

FEBRUARY 3, 2000

Mr. FRIST (for himself, Mr. ROBB, Ms. COLLINS, Mr. HELMS, Mr. LEAHY,

Mr. REED, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. ABRAHAM, Mr. DURBIN, Mrs. MURRAY,

and Mr. HOLLINGS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice

and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

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 2000’’.
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1 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON 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 or entity within the United States, in making

13 any telephone solicitation, to interfere with or cir14 cumvent the ability of a caller identification service

15 to access or provide to the recipient of the call the

16 information about the call (as required under the

17 regulations issued under paragraph (2)) that such

18 service is capable of providing.

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

20 after the date of the enactment of the Know Your

21 Caller Act of 2000, the Commission shall prescribe

22 regulations to implement this subsection which

23 shall—

24 ‘‘(A) require any person or entity making

25 a telephone solicitation to make such solicita26 tion in a manner such that a recipient of such
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1 solicitation having a caller identification service

2 capable of providing such information will be

3 provided by such service with—

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

5 on whose behalf such solicitation is being

6 made; and

7 ‘‘(ii) a valid and working telephone

8 number at which the caller or the person

9 or entity on whose behalf such solicitation

10 was made may be reached during regular

11 business hours for the purpose of request12 ing that the recipient of such solicitation

13 be placed on the do-not-call list required

14 under section 64.1200 of the Commission’s

15 regulations (47 CFR 64.1200) to be main16 tained by the person making such solicita17 tion; and

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

19 receives a request from a person to be placed on

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

21 name and telephone number for any other tele22 marketing, mail marketing, or other marketing

23 purpose (including transfer or sale to any other

24 entity for marketing use) other than enforce25 ment of such list.
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1 ‘‘(2) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—A person or

2 entity may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or

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

4 court of that State—

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

6 subsection or the regulations prescribed under

7 this subsection to enjoin such violation;

8 ‘‘(B) an action to recover for actual mone9 tary loss from such a violation, or to receive

10 $5,000 in damages for each such violation,

11 whichever is greater; or

12 ‘‘(C) both such actions.

13 If the court finds that the defendant willfully or

14 knowingly violated this subsection or the regulations

15 prescribed under this subsection, the court may, in

16 its discretion, increase the amount of the award to

17 an amount equal to not more than 3 times the

18 amount available under subparagraph (B).

19 ‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub20 section:

21 ‘‘(A) CALLER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE.—

22 The term ‘caller identification service’ means

23 any service or device designed to provide the

24 user of the service or device with the telephone

25 number of an incoming telephone call.
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1 ‘‘(B) TELEPHONE CALL.—The term ‘tele2 phone call’ means any telephone call or other

3 transmission which is made to or received at a

4 telephone number of any type of telephone serv5 ice. Such term includes calls made by an auto6 matic telephone dialing system, an integrated

7 services digital network, and a commercial mo8 bile radio source.’’.

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

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

11 section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

12 U.S.C. 227), as redesignated by section 2 of this Act, is

13 further amended—

14 (1) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘or’’ at

15 the end;

16 (2) in subparagraph (D), by striking the period

17 and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and

18 (3) by adding at the end the following new sub19 paragraph:

20 ‘‘(E) interfering with or circumventing

21 caller identification services.’’.

22 (b) ACTIONS BY STATES.—The first sentence of sub23 section (g)(1) of such section 227, as so redesignated, is

24 further amended by inserting after ‘‘this section,’’ the fol25 lowing: ‘‘or has engaged or is engaging in a pattern or
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1 practice of interfering with or circumventing caller identi2 fication services of residents of that State in violation of

3 subsection (e) or the regulations prescribed under such

4 subsection,’’.*ERR08*

Æ