093_HB3407eng
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1 AN ACT concerning business transactions.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 5. The Restricted Call Registry Act is amended
5 by changing Sections 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 as follows:
6 (815 ILCS 402/10)
7 Sec. 10. Prohibited calls. Beginning October July 1,
8 2003, it is a violation of this Act for any no person or
9 entity to may make or cause to be made any telephone
10 solicitation calls to any residential subscriber more than 45
11 days after the person or entity obtains the Registry or any
12 update of the Registry on which the residential subscriber's
13 telephone number or numbers first appear on the Registry.
14 (Source: P.A. 92-795, eff. 8-9-02.)
15 (815 ILCS 402/20)
16 Sec. 20. Registry; establishment and maintenance.
17 (a) The Illinois Commerce Commission shall establish and
18 provide for the operation of a Restricted Call Registry,
19 which shall contain a list of the telephone numbers of
20 residential subscribers who do not wish to receive telephone
21 solicitation calls. The national "do-not-call" registry
22 established and maintained by the Federal Trade Commission,
23 pursuant to 16 C.F.R. 310.4 (b)(1)(iii)(B), shall serve as
24 the Registry provided by this Act. The Illinois Commerce
25 Commission may contract with a private vendor to establish
26 and maintain the Registry if the contract requires the vendor
27 to provide
28 (b) Residential subscribers may cause their telephone
29 number or numbers to appear on the Registry in a printed hard
30 copy format, in an electronic format, and in any manner other
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1 format prescribed by the Illinois Commerce Commission.
2 (c) Any person or entity conducting telephone
3 solicitation calls as defined by Section 5(e) of this Act
4 within the State of Illinois shall purchase the Restricted
5 Call Registry and updates no less frequently than every 3
6 months exclusively from the Federal Trade Illinois Commerce
7 Commission. Failure to do so prior to conducting telephone
8 solicitation calls is a violation subject to the penalties
9 provided for in Section 35 of this Act.
10 (d)(b) No later than January 1, 2003, The Illinois
11 Commerce Commission may shall adopt rules consistent with
12 this Act that the Illinois Commerce Commission deems
13 necessary and appropriate to fully implement this Act. The
14 rules shall include, at a minimum, methods by which any
15 person or entity desiring to make telephone solicitation
16 calls may obtain access to the Registry to avoid calling the
17 telephone numbers of residential subscribers included in the
18 Registry.
19 (c) The fee for obtaining the Registry and updates shall
20 be set forth in rules adopted by the Illinois Commerce
21 Commission. The fee may not exceed $1,000 annually and may
22 not exceed the costs incurred by the Commission in the
23 preparation, maintenance, production, and distribution of the
24 Registry. All copies requested in a printed hard copy format
25 shall be assessed a per page fee to be determined by rules
26 adopted by the Illinois Commerce Commission.
27 (d) The Illinois Commerce Commission shall update the
28 Registry and make information in the Registry available on a
29 quarterly basis in an electronic format that can be sorted by
30 individual fields and, if deemed appropriate by the Illinois
31 Commerce Commission, in one or more other formats.
32 (e) If the Federal Communications Commission or Federal
33 Trade Commission establishes a single national database of
34 telephone numbers of subscribers who object to receiving
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1 telephone solicitations, which restricts both inter-state and
2 intra-state calls and at a minimum covers all telephone
3 solicitations covered by this Act, this State shall
4 discontinue the Registry.
5 (e)(f) Information pertaining to residential subscribers
6 Information in the Registry is confidential and shall be
7 afforded reasonable privacy protection except as necessary
8 for compliance with Sections 10 and 25 and this Section or in
9 a proceeding or action under Section 35 or 40. The
10 information is not a public record under the Freedom of
11 Information Act.
12 (g) The Illinois Commerce Commission shall periodically
13 obtain subscription listings of residential subscribers in
14 this State who have arranged to be included in any national
15 do-not-call list and add those names to the Registry.
16 (f)(h) A person or entity that obtains the Registry
17 shall not use the Registry for any purpose other than to
18 comply with this Act. These unlawful purposes include, but
19 are not limited to, causing a subscriber to participate in
20 and be included in the Registry without the subscriber's
21 knowledge or consent, selling or leasing the Registry to a
22 person other than a telephone solicitor, selling or leasing
23 by a telephone solicitor of the Registry, and a telephone
24 solicitor, either directly or indirectly, persuading a
25 subscriber with whom it has an established business
26 relationship to place his or her telephone number in the
27 Registry, if the solicitation has the effect of preventing
28 competitors from contacting that solicitor's customers.
29 (g)(i) No person or entity that sells, leases,
30 exchanges, or rents telephone solicitation lists, except for
31 directory assistance and telephone directories sold by
32 telephone companies or their affiliates, shall include in
33 those lists those telephone numbers that appear in the
34 current Registry.
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1 (Source: P.A. 92-795, eff. 8-9-02.)
2 (815 ILCS 402/25)
3 Sec. 25. Notice of establishment of Registry.
4 Enrollment. (a) The Illinois Commerce Commission shall
5 provide notice to residential subscribers of the
6 establishment of the Registry.
7 (b) The Illinois Commerce Commission shall establish any
8 method deemed appropriate for a residential subscriber to
9 notify the Illinois Commerce Commission that the residential
10 subscriber wishes to have its telephone number included in or
11 remain on the Registry.
12 (c) The Commission may, by rule, set an initial fee
13 which shall not exceed $5 per residential subscriber for
14 inclusion on the Restricted Call Registry. The Commission
15 shall review the revenues and expenditures of the Restricted
16 Call Registry on a biennial basis and shall, by rule, reduce
17 the fee accordingly if revenues exceed expenditures. The
18 Commission may adopt rules and procedures governing the
19 acceptance of payment by credit card and may enter into such
20 agreements as necessary to accept payment by credit card.
21 (d) A residential subscriber's telephone number shall be
22 deleted from the Registry upon the residential subscriber's
23 written request.
24 (e) Enrollment in the Registry is effective from the
25 start of the quarter following the date of enrollment for a
26 term of 5 years or until the residential subscriber
27 disconnects or changes his or her telephone number, unless
28 the subscriber complies with the notice provision contained
29 in this Section, whichever occurs first. The residential
30 subscriber shall be permitted to extend their enrollment for
31 additional 5 year periods and shall not be subject to any fee
32 for this extension. The residential subscriber is
33 responsible for notifying the Illinois Commerce Commission of
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1 any changes in his or her telephone number. The Illinois
2 Commerce Commission shall use its best efforts to notify
3 enrolled residential subscribers before the end of the 5-year
4 enrollment term of the option to extend their enrollment.
5 Residential subscribers who do not indicate their desire to
6 extend their enrollment before the end of the 5-year term
7 shall be given a one quarter grace period before being
8 removed from the Registry.
9 (Source: P.A. 92-795, eff. 8-9-02.)
10 (815 ILCS 402/30)
11 Sec. 30. Public notification. The Illinois Commerce
12 Commission shall work with local exchange telecommunications
13 companies to notify disseminate to their customers
14 information about the availability of and instructions for
15 requesting information educational literature from the
16 Illinois Commerce Commission. The Illinois Commerce
17 Commission may enter into agreements with those companies for
18 the dissemination of the educational literature. Local
19 exchange telecommunications companies shall provide this
20 notice disseminate the educational literature at least once
21 per year in a message contained in customers' bills and
22 include or a notice in the information section of all
23 telephone directories distributed to customers and shall
24 include on their website a link to the ICC's web page for the
25 Registry. The Illinois Commerce Commission shall include, on
26 its Internet web site, information to customers regarding
27 their right to be included in the Registry and the various
28 methods, including notice to the Illinois Commerce
29 Commission, of being included in the Registry. The Illinois
30 Commerce Commission shall develop language to be used by
31 local exchange telecommunications carriers and shall make
32 information available on its web site shall have this
33 literature developed for dissemination to the public no later
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1 than July March 1, 2003.
2 (Source: P.A. 92-795, eff. 8-9-02.)
3 (815 ILCS 402/35)
4 Sec. 35. Violation; relief.
5 (a) The Illinois Commerce Commission may initiate
6 administrative proceedings in accordance with rules adopted
7 under this Act relating to a knowing and willful violation of
8 Section 10.
9 (b) If it is determined after a hearing that a person
10 has knowingly and willfully violated one or more provisions
11 of this Section, the Illinois Commerce Commission may assess
12 a fine not to exceed $1,000 for the first violation and not
13 to exceed $2,500 for a second or subsequent violation. Each
14 individual violation of Section 10 of this Act shall be a
15 separate and distinct offense under this Section. In
16 imposing a penalty under this Section, the Commission shall,
17 at a minimum, consider the following factors:
18 (1) whether the offense was knowing or willful;
19 (2) whether the entity committing the offense has a
20 prior history of non-compliance with this Act;
21 (3) the offender's relative ability to pay a
22 penalty;
23 (4) whether the offender has or has not cooperated
24 with the Commission in pursuing the investigation; and
25 (5) such other special, mitigating or aggravating
26 circumstances as the Commission may find to exist.
27 (c) Any proceeding conducted under this Section is
28 subject to the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act.
29 (d) Nothing in this Section may be construed to restrict
30 any right that any person may have under any other law or at
31 common law.
32 (e) No action or proceeding may be brought under this
33 Section:
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1 (1) more than one year after the person bringing
2 the action knew or should have known of the occurrence of
3 the alleged violation; or
4 (2) more than one year after the termination of any
5 proceeding or action arising out of the same violation or
6 violations by the State of Illinois, whichever is later.
7 (f) The remedies, duties, prohibitions, and penalties in
8 this Act are not exclusive and are in addition to all other
9 causes of action, remedies, and penalties provided by law.
10 (g) There is created in the State Treasury a special
11 fund to be known as the Restricted Call Registry Fund. All
12 fees and fines collected in the administration and
13 enforcement of this Act shall be deposited into the Fund.
14 Moneys in the Fund shall, subject to appropriation, be used
15 by the Illinois Commerce Commission for implementation,
16 administration, and enforcement of this Act.
17 (Source: P.A. 92-795, eff. 8-9-02.)
18 (815 ILCS 402/40)
19 Sec. 40. Exemption.
20 (a) A person or entity may not be held liable for
21 violating this Act if:
22 (1) the person or entity has obtained copies of the
23 Registry and updates in compliance with this Act each
24 updated Registry from the Illinois Commerce Commission
25 and has established and implemented written policies and
26 procedures related to the requirements of this Act;
27 (2) the person or entity has trained its personnel
28 in the requirements of this Act;
29 (3) the person or entity maintains records
30 demonstrating compliance with subdivisions (1) and (2) of
31 this Section and the requirements of this Act; and
32 (4) any subsequent telephone solicitation is the
33 result of unintentional error.
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1 (b) A person or entity that has entered into a contract
2 with another person or entity to make telephone solicitations
3 on its behalf is not liable for a violation of this Act by
4 the person or entity making telephone solicitations under the
5 contract if the person or entity on whose behalf the
6 telephone solicitations were made has provided written
7 notification to the person or entity making telephone
8 solicitations under the contract that it is necessary to
9 comply with the provisions of this Act when making telephone
10 solicitations.
11 (Source: P.A. 92-795, eff. 8-9-02.)
12 Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
13 becoming law.