Amended
IN
Assembly
May 06, 2020 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
May 04, 2020 |
Introduced by Assembly Member Chau |
February 21, 2020 |
Under existing law, the commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law, with specified exceptions, directs the commission to require any call identification service offered by a telephone corporation, or by any other person or corporation that makes use of the facilities of a telephone corporation, to allow a caller to withhold, on an individual basis, the display of the caller’s telephone number from the
telephone instrument of the individual receiving the call. Existing law prohibits a caller from withholding the display of the caller’s business telephone number when that number is being used for telemarketing purposes.
This bill would require telephone corporations, upon request, and at no additional charge, to make technology that mitigates consumer impacts of automatic dialing-announcing devices, as specified, available to customers and to offer to customers an option to have the telephone corporation prevent calls and text messages originating from a particular source. The bill would require the commission to implement those requirements, and authorize the commission to reasonably delay the imposition of those requirements, as specified. The bill would authorize a person harmed by a violation of those requirements, or of the applicable rules established by the commission, to bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction to enjoin the violation, and to
recover any actual monetary loss from the violation or receive $500 in damages, whichever is greater. The bill would also authorize the court to impose up to treble damages for a willful or knowing violation of those requirements.
(a)Each telephone corporation that provides telephone service to customers residing in the state shall make call mitigation technology available to any such customer, upon request, and at no additional charge. The telephone corporation shall also offer to the customer an option to have the telephone corporation prevent calls and text messages originating from a particular source from being completed to the customer, upon request, and at no additional charge.
(b)The commission shall implement the requirements of this section.
(c)The commission may do either of the following:
(1)Reasonably delay the imposition of this section’s requirements for good cause and taking into account the consumer protection purposes of this section.
(2)Establish procedures for addressing incidents in which a call that was wanted by a customer is prevented from reaching the customer.
(d)(1)A person harmed by a violation of this section, or of the rules established by the commission pursuant to this section, may bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction to do one or both of the following:
(A)To enjoin such a violation.
(B)To recover any actual monetary
loss from, or receive five hundred dollars ($500) in damages for, such a violation, whichever is greater.
(2)If a court finds that a defendant willfully or knowingly violated this section, or the rules established by the commission pursuant to this section, the court may, in its discretion, increase the amount of the monetary damages awarded to an amount equal to not more than three times the amount available pursuant to paragraph (1).
(e)An action to recover damages for a violation of this section, or the rules established by the commission pursuant to this section, shall not be brought more than four years after the alleged violation occurred.
(f)For purposes of this section, “call mitigation technology” means
technology that identifies an incoming call or text message as being, or as probably being, from an automatic dialing-announcing device as defined in Section 2871, and, on that basis, blocks the call or message, diverts it to the called person’s answering system, or otherwise prevents it from being completed to the called person, except that it permits a call or text so identified to be completed when it is identified as being made by a law enforcement or public safety entity, or when it is identified as originating from a caller with respect to whom the called person has provided prior express consent to receive such a call or message and has not revoked that consent.