[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3100 Introduced in House (IH)]







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 telemarketers 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 Representatives 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 following 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 telephone 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 
        capable 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 telephone 
                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 business 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 
                        maintained 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 telemarketing, mail 
                marketing, or other marketing purpose (including 
                transfer or sale to any other entity for marketing use) 
                other than enforcement 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 monetary loss 
                from such a violation, or to receive $500 in damages 
                for each such violation, whichever 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 subsection:
                    ``(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 `telephone call' 
                means any telephone call or other transmission which is 
                made to or received at a telephone number of any type 
                of telephone service. Such term includes calls made by 
                an automatic telephone dialing system, an integrated 
                services digital network, and a commercial mobile 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 subparagraph:
                    ``(E) interfering with or circumventing caller 
                identification services.''.
    (b) Actions by States.--The first sentence of subsection (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 amended by inserting after ``this section,'' the following: 
``or has engaged or is engaging in a pattern or practice of interfering 
with or circumventing caller identification services of residents of 
that State in violation of subsection (e) or the regulations prescribed 
under such subsection,''.
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