§ 5-61-3.5 - Do not call lists.
SECTION 5-61-3.5
§ 5-61-3.5 Do not call lists. – (a) No salesperson or telephonic seller shall make or cause to be made anyunsolicited telephonic sales calls to any residential, mobile or telephonicpaging device telephone number unless the salesperson or telephonic seller hasinstituted procedures for maintaining a list of persons who do not wish toreceive telephonic sales calls made by or on behalf of that person, incompliance with 47 C.F.R 64 or 16 C.F.R 310. Additionally, no person or entityconducting business in this state shall transmit or cause to be transmitted atext message advertisement to a cellular telephone or pager equipped with shortmessage capability or any similar capability allowing the transmission of textmessages. A text message advertisement is a message, the principal purpose ofwhich is to promote the sale of goods or services to the recipient, consistingof advertising material for the lease, sale, rental, gift, offer, ordisposition of realty, goods, services, or extension of credit.
(1) This section shall apply when a text messageadvertisement is transmitted to a telephone number assigned for a cellulartelephone or pager service to a Rhode Island resident.
(2) This section shall not apply to text messages transmittedat the direction of a person or entity offering cellular telephone or pagerservice if the subscriber is offered an option not to receive those textmessages.
(3) This section shall not apply to text messages transmittedby a business that has an existing relationship with the subscriber if thesubscriber is offered an option not to receive text messages from that business.
(4) This section shall not apply to text messages transmittedby an affiliate of a business that has an existing relationship with thesubscriber, but only if the subscriber has provided consent to the businesswith which he or she has the relationship to receive text messages fromaffiliates of that business. "Affiliate" means any company that controls, iscontrolled by, or is under the common control with, another company.
(5) This act shall not impose an obligation on a person orentity offering cellular or pager service to control the transmission of a textmessage unless the message is transmitted at the direction of that person orentity.
(b) Any person who violates any provision of this section isguilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of notmore than five hundred dollars ($500) per violation.