North Carolina Administrative Code › Title 04 - COMMERCE › Chapter 11 - UTILITIES COMMISSION › Chapter 20 › Section 11 R20-01 - SLAMMING, CRAMMING AND RELATED ABUSES IN THE MARKETING OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES

Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 2, July 15, 2024
(a) No
				telecommunications provider shall submit, or cause to be submitted, a change
				order for preferred intraLATA interexchange carrier, interLATA interexchange
				carrier or local exchange carrier to any telecommunications company except in
				accordance with the procedures required by the current regulations of the
				Federal Communications Commission.
(b) If the Commission determines that a
				telecommunications provider has submitted, or caused to be submitted, a change
				order and cannot demonstrate that it has complied with subsection (a), the
				Commission shall make available to the customer the remedies authorized by the
				current regulations of the Federal Communications Commission, with respect to
				both interstate and intrastate service, and for this purpose the customer's
				authorized carrier may be made a party to the proceeding.
(c) (Reserved for future use.)
(d) No telecommunications provider shall
				provide any service to any customer for compensation, or submit or authorize
				any billing, unless and until the customer or the customer's representative has
				clearly, expressly and affirmatively agreed to purchase the service; provided,
				however, with respect to dial-around charges or per-use charges associated with
				vertical feature offerings of local providers and subject to forgiveness
				policies relating to the billing of charges, use of such services by an
				employee of the customer or by a member or guest of the customer's household
				shall be deemed to have been made under the authority of the customer. For
				purposes of this subsection, each day the provider continues to make the
				service available to the customer for compensation constitutes a separate
				violation, even if the customer does not actively make use of the
				service.
(e) Any telecommunications
				provider's telemarketing, direct mail or other forms of solicitation to change
				a customer's preferred local exchange carrier, intraLATA interexchange carrier,
				or interLATA interexchange carrier shall comply with the current regulations of
				the Federal Communications Commission regarding separate letters of
				authorization.
(f) As used in this
				section:
(1) "Express authorization" means an
				express, affirmative act by the customer or the customer's representative
				clearly agreeing to the change in preferred intraLATA interexchange carrier,
				interLATA interexchange carrier or local exchange carrier, in a manner
				consistent with this section and the regulations of the Federal Communications
				Commission.
(2) "Customer" means
				the party in whose name the telecommunications service is provided.
(3) "Customer's representative" means any
				adult person authorized by the customer to change telecommunications services,
				or contractually or otherwise lawfully authorized to represent the
				customer.
(4) "Telecommunications
				provider" means any public utility that provides telecommunications
				service.