§ 5-61-3.5. Do not call lists.
(a) No salesperson or telephonic seller shall make, or cause to be made, any unsolicited telephonic sales calls to any residential, mobile, or telephonic-paging-device telephone number unless the salesperson or telephonic seller has instituted procedures for maintaining a list of persons who do not wish to receive telephonic sales calls made by or on behalf of that person, in compliance with 47 C.F.R. Part 64 or 16 C.F.R. Part 310. Additionally, no person or entity conducting business in this state shall transmit, or cause to be transmitted, a text message advertisement to a cellular telephone or pager equipped with short message capability or any similar capability allowing the transmission of text messages. A text message advertisement is a message, the principal purpose of which is to promote the sale of goods or services to the recipient, consisting of advertising material for the lease, sale, rental, gift, offer, or disposition of realty, goods, services, or extension of credit.
(1) This section shall apply when a text message advertisement is transmitted to a telephone number assigned for a cellular telephone or pager service to a Rhode Island resident.
(2) This section shall not apply to text messages transmitted at the direction of a person or entity offering cellular telephone or pager service if the subscriber is offered an option not to receive those text messages.
(3) This section shall not apply to text messages transmitted by a business that has an existing relationship with the subscriber if the subscriber is offered an option not to receive text messages from that business.
(4) This section shall not apply to text messages transmitted by an affiliate of a business that has an existing relationship with the subscriber, but only if the subscriber has provided consent to the business with which he or she has the relationship to receive text messages from affiliates of that business. “Affiliate” means any company that controls, is controlled by, or is under the common control with, another company.
(5) This section shall not impose an obligation on a person or entity offering cellular or pager service to control the transmission of a text message unless the message is transmitted at the direction of that person or entity.
(b) Any person who violates any provision of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) per violation.
History of Section.
P.L. 1999, ch. 456, § 2; P.L. 2003, ch. 98, § 1; P.L. 2003, ch. 216, § 1.