Bill Text: NJ A4067 | 2018-2019 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires automatic dialing device callers to disclose certain identifying information.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-06-04 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee [A4067 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2018-A4067-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman SERENA DIMASO
District 13 (Monmouth)
Assemblyman ROBERT D. CLIFTON
District 12 (Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Requires automatic dialing device callers to disclose certain identifying information.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act relating to the use of automatic dialing devices, and supplementing Title 56 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. For the purposes of this P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill):
"Automatic dialing device" means equipment or software capable of being programmed to randomly or sequentially dial telephone numbers and, upon connection, play a prerecorded or automated voice message or connect a customer to a caller.
"Caller" means a person who contacts or attempts to contact a customer in this State, or causes a customer in this State to be contacted by use of an automatic dialing device, via telephone or using a telephone line, wireless communications technology, or Voice over Internet Protocol service.
"Customer" means a person who receives telephone service from a telephone company regulated as a public utility under Title 48 of the Revised Statutes or from a wireless telephone company.
"Telephone company" means the organization that provides switched local telephone exchange access service.
"Voice over Internet Protocol service" shall have the same meaning as provided in section 3 of P.L.2007, c.195 (C.48:17-34).
"Wireless telephone company" means any person providing commercial mobile service as defined in 47 U.S.C.s.332(d).
2. a. A caller shall not use an automatic dialing device to contact a customer who is located in this State in order to transmit a recorded or automated voice message to the customer via the customer's telephone or wireless telephone, unless the prerecorded or automated voice message accurately identifies the caller's name, the person on whose behalf the call is being made, and the purpose of the call within the first 30 seconds of the prerecorded or automated voice message.
b. A caller shall not use an automatic dialing device to contact a customer in this State on the customer's telephone or wireless telephone and then forward the call to a third party, unless the caller, within the first 30 seconds of the call, accurately identifies the caller's name, the person on whose behalf the call is being made, the purpose of the call, and the name of the third party to which the caller intends to forward the call.
3. a. It shall be an unlawful practice and a violation of P.L.1960, c.39 (C.56:8-1 et seq.) to violate the provisions of section 2 of P.L. c. (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
b. The provisions of P.L. c. (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall not supersede or abrogate or affect the status of any applicable provisions of P.L.1993 c.252 (C.48:17-28 et seq.), P.L.1991, c.416 (C.56:8-54 et seq.), and P.L.2003, c.76 (C.56:8-120 et seq.).
4. The Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety shall adopt, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), any rules and regulations necessary to effectuate the purposes of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
5. This act shall take effect on the first day of the month next following the date of enactment by 90 days, but the Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance thereof as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill requires callers that use an automatic dialing device in order to contact telephone and wireless telephone customers in this State to disclose certain identifying information.
Under the bill, a caller is prohibited from using an automatic dialing device to contact a telephone or wireless telephone customer who is located in this State in order to transmit a recorded or automated voice message to the customer via the customer's telephone or wireless telephone, unless the prerecorded or automated voice message accurately identifies the caller, as described in the bill. The bill further prohibits a caller from using an automatic dialing device to contact a telephone or wireless telephone customer in this State on the customer's telephone or wireless telephone and then forward the call to a third party, unless the caller accurately identifies the caller and the third party, as described in the bill, to the customer prior to forwarding the call. The bill provides that a violation of the bill is an unlawful practice under the New Jersey consumer fraud act.
