§ 6-47-1 - Advertising by fax.
SECTION 6-47-1
§ 6-47-1 Advertising by fax. – (a) No person or entity conducting business in the state of Rhode Island shalltransmit by facsimile (fax) or cause to be faxed documents consisting ofunsolicited advertising material for the lease, sale, rental, gift offer, orother disposition of any realty, goods, services, or extension of credit unless:
(1) In the case of a fax, that person or entity mustestablish a toll-free telephone number that a recipient of the unsolicitedfaxed documents may call to notify the sender not to fax the recipient anyfurther unsolicited documents.
(2) In the case of faxed material, the statement shall be inat least nine (9) point type. The statement shall be the first text in the bodyof the message and shall be of the same size as the majority of the text of themessage.
(b) Upon notification by a recipient of his or her requestnot to receive any further unsolicited fax, no person or entity conductingbusiness in the state of Rhode Island shall fax or cause to be faxed anyunsolicited documents to that recipient.
(c) As used in this chapter, "unsolicited fax" means anydocument or documents consisting of advertising material for the lease, sale,rental, gift offer, or other disposition of any realty, goods, services, orextension of credit that meet both of the following requirements:
(1) The documents are addressed to a recipient with whom theinitiator does not have an existing business or personal relationship.
(2) The documents are not sent at the request of, or with theexpress consent of, the recipient.
(d) As used in this chapter, "fax" or "caused to be faxed"does not include or refer to the transmission of any documents by atelecommunications utility or Internet service provider to the extent that thetelecommunications utility or Internet service provider merely carries thattransmission over its network.
(e) The recipient of an unsolicited fax, transmitted inviolation of subsection (b) of this section, may bring a civil action insuperior court against the person or entity that transmitted the unsolicitedfax or caused it to be transmitted in violation of subsection (b). Anytransmission of an unsolicited fax in violation of subsection (b) shall beconsidered a violation of chapter 6-13.1, known as the Deceptive TradePractices Act, and may subject the person or entity that transmitted, or causedto be transmitted, the unsolicited fax to prosecution by the attorney generalpursuant to chapter 6-13.1. In any such action by either the recipient of suchunsolicited fax or the attorney general on behalf of the recipient orrecipients, damages may be awarded in the amount of five hundred dollars ($500)for each violation, not to exceed a total of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000).The attorney general may, in such circumstances as he or she may deemappropriate, aggregate multiple claims against a person or entity alleged tohave committed multiple violations of this section, and maintain a class actionon behalf of all recipients of the unsolicited faxes. In any action broughtunder this section, the court may award, in addition to the relief provided inthis section, reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.