I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3100
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
OCTOBER 19, 1999
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit tele-
marketers from interfering with the caller identification
service of any person to whom a telephone solicitation
is made, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Know Your Caller Act
of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF INTERFERENCE WITH CALLER
IDENTIFICATION SERVICES.
Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 227) is amended—
(1) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as
subsections (f) and (g), respectively; and
(2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol-
lowing new subsection:
‘‘(e) PROHIBITION ON INTERFERENCE WITH CALLER
IDENTIFICATION SERVICES.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any
person within the United States, in making any tele-
phone solicitation, to interfere with or circumvent
the ability of a caller identification service to access
or provide to the recipient of the call the information
about the call (as required under the regulations
issued under paragraph (2)) that such service is ca-
pable of providing.
‘‘(2) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 6 months
after the enactment of the Know Your Caller Act of
1999, the Commission shall prescribe regulations to
implement this subsection which shall—
‘‘(A) require any person making a tele-
phone solicitation to make such solicitation in a
manner such that a recipient of the solicitation
having a caller identification service capable of
providing such information will be provided by
such service with—
‘‘(i) the name of the person or entity
on whose behalf the solicitation is being
made; and
‘‘(ii) a valid and working telephone
number at which the caller or the entity on
whose behalf the telephone solicitation was
made may be reached during regular busi-
ness hours for the purpose of requesting
that the recipient of the solicitation be
placed on the do-not-call list required
under section 64.1200 of the Commission’s
regulations (47 CFR 64.1200) to be main-
tained by the person making the telephone
solicitation; and
‘‘(B) provide that any person or entity who
receives a request from a person to be placed on
such do-not-call list may not use such person’s
name and telephone number for any other tele-
marketing, mail marketing, or other marketing
purpose (including transfer or sale to any other
entity for marketing use) other than enforce-
ment of such list.
‘‘(2) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—A person or
entity may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or
rules of court of a State, bring in an appropriate
court of that State—
‘‘(A) an action based on a violation of this
subsection or the regulations prescribed under
this subsection to enjoin such violation;
‘‘(B) an action to recover for actual mone-
tary loss from such a violation, or to receive
$500 in damages for each such violation, which-
ever is greater; or
‘‘(C) both such actions.
If the court finds that the defendant willfully or
knowingly violated this subsection or the regulations
prescribed under this subsection, the court may, in
its discretion, increase the amount of the award to
an amount equal to not more than 3 times the
amount available under subparagraph (B) of this
paragraph.
‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub-
section:
‘‘(A) CALLER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE.—
The term ‘caller identification service’ means
any service or device designed to provide the
user of the service or device with the telephone
number of an incoming call.
‘‘(B) TELEPHONE CALL.—The term ‘tele-
phone call’ means any telephone call or other
transmission which is made to or received at a
telephone number of any type of telephone serv-
ice. Such term includes calls made by an auto-
matic telephone dialing system, an integrated
services digital network, and a commercial mo-
bile radio source.’’.
SEC. 3. EFFECT ON STATE LAW AND STATE ACTIONS.
(a) EFFECT ON STATE LAW.—Subsection (f)(1) of
section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 227(f)(1)), as so redesignated by section 2(1) of
this Act, is further amended—
(1) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘or’’ at
the end;
(2) in subparagraph (D), by striking the period
and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-
paragraph:
‘‘(E) interfering with or circumventing
caller identification services.’’.
(b) ACTIONS BY STATES.—The first sentence of sub-
section (g)(1) of section 227 of the Communications Act
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(f)(1)), as such subsections is so
redesignated by section 2(1) of this Act, is further amend-
ed by inserting after ‘‘this section,’’ the following: ‘‘or has
engaged or is engaging in a pattern or practice of inter-
fering with or circumventing caller identification services
of residents of that State in violation of subsection (e) or
the regulations prescribed under such subsection,’’.
Æ