I
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3798
To amend section 258 of the Communications Act of 1934 to protect
telephone consumers against ‘‘cramming’’ of charges on their telephone bills.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 6, 1998
Mr. MENENDEZ introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Commerce
A BILL
To amend section 258 of the Communications Act of 1934
to protect telephone consumers against ‘‘cramming’’ of
charges on their telephone bills.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Telephone Billing Fair-
ness Act’’.
SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE BLOCKING UPON SUB-
SCRIBER REQUEST.
Section 258 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 258) is amended—
(1) in the section heading, by inserting ‘‘AND
REQUIRED BLOCKING OF BILLING FOR CER-
TAIN SERVICES’’ before the period at the end; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new sub-
section:
‘‘(c) BLOCKING OF CERTAIN CHARGES UPON CUS-
TOMER REQUEST.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall, by
regulation, require each provider of telephone ex-
change service and each provider of telephone toll
service, and any billing agent for any such provider,
upon the oral or written request of a subscriber to
the provider, to block from inclusion in the subscrib-
er’s telephone bill any charges for any products or
services that are not telephone exchange or toll serv-
ice for the subscriber provided by such provider.
‘‘(2) CONSENT TO INCLUSION.—The regulations
under this subsection shall provide that, notwith-
standing a request for blocking made in accordance
with the requirement under paragraph (1), a pro-
vider of telephone exchange or telephone toll service
shall include in a subscriber’s telephone bill the
charges for specific products or services that would
otherwise be blocked from such inclusion, but only—
‘‘(A) upon—
‘‘(i) a written request that (I) re-
quests the inclusion of the charges for spe-
cific products or services provided by a
specific provider, and (II) is signed and
dated by the subscriber; and
‘‘(ii) a subsequent oral confirmation
by the subscriber of the accuracy of the in-
formation provided under subclauses (I)
and (II) of clause (i); or
‘‘(B) upon—
‘‘(i) a request made orally by the sub-
scriber that includes the information de-
scribed in subclause (I) of clause (i); and
‘‘(ii) a subsequent written confirma-
tion meeting the requirements under sub-
paragraph (A).
‘‘(3) NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS OF AVAILABIL-
ITY OF BLOCKING.—The Commission shall require
each provider of telephone exchange service and each
provider of telephone toll service, and any billing
agent for any such provider, to include in each sub-
scriber’s telephone bill for such service, not less fre-
quently than once each calendar quarter, a state-
ment informing the subscriber that the customer
may—
‘‘(A) obtain blocking of charges from inclu-
sion in the subscriber’s telephone bill as pro-
vided in paragraph (1);
‘‘(B) obtain such blocking by making an
oral or written request to the provider; and
‘‘(C) may, despite obtaining blocking, con-
sent to the inclusion in the subscriber’s bill of
specific charges for services that otherwise
would be blocked by making an oral or written
request to the provider, which will be subject to
separate confirmation by the provider.
‘‘(4) TELEPHONE
TOLL
SERVICE.—For pur-
poses of this subsection, the term ‘telephone toll
service’ does not include—
‘‘(A) commercial mobile services; and
‘‘(B) pay-per-call services, as such term is
defined in section 228(i).’’.
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