Unwanted calls & texts

AN ACT Relating to expanding protections against unwanted 1
telephone calls and text messages for cellular users; and amending 2
RCW 80.36.390, 19.190.010, and 19.190.060. 3
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:4
Sec. 1. RCW 80.36.390 and 2023 c 103 s 3 are each amended to 5
read as follows: 6
(1)(((a) As used in this section, "telephone )) The definitions in 7
this subsection apply throughout this section unless the context 8
clearly requires otherwise.9
(a) "Person" means an individual, firm, association, 10
organization, corporation, partnership, joint venture, sole 11
proprietorship, or any other business entity.12
(b)(i) "Telephone solicitation" means the unsolicited initiation 13
of a telephone call by a commercial or nonprofit company or 14
organization to a person for the purpose of encouraging the person to 15
purchase property, goods, or services, wrongfully obtaining anything 16
of value, or soliciting donations of money, property, goods, or 17
services. 18
(((b))) (ii) "Telephone solicitation" does not include:19
(((i))) (A) Calls made in response to a request or inquiry by the 20
called party. This includes calls regarding an item that has been 21
H-0036.2
HOUSE BILL 1103
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2025 Regular Session
By Representatives Shavers, Ryu, Simmons, Wylie, Nance, Fosse, and
Reeves
Prefiled 12/19/24. Read first time 01/13/25. Referred to Committee
on Consumer Protection & Business.
p. 1 HB 1103
purchased by the called party from the company or organization during 1
a period not longer than 12 months prior to the telephone contact;2
(((ii))) (B) Calls made by a not-for-profit organization, as 3
defined by 26 U.S.C. Sec. 501 of the federal internal revenue code, 4
to its own list of bona fide or active members of the organization;5
(((iii))) (C) Calls made by a membership or labor organization to 6
its own list of bona fide or active members of the organization;7
(((iv))) (D) Calls limited to polling or soliciting the 8
expression of ideas, opinions, or votes; or 9
(((v))) (E) Business-to-business ((contacts)) sales where:10
(I) The purchaser business intends to resell the property or 11
goods purchased; or12
(II) The purchaser business intends to use the property or goods 13
purchased in a recycling, reuse, remanufacturing, or manufacturing 14
process. 15
(c) "Telephone call" means any communication made through a 16
telephone that uses a live person, artificial voice, or recorded 17
message. 18
(d) "Telephone solicitor" means a commercial or nonprofit company 19
or organization engaged in telephone solicitation.20
(2)(a) For purposes of this section, each individual real estate 21
agent or insurance agent who maintains a separate list from other 22
individual real estate or insurance agents shall be treated as a 23
company or organization. 24
(b) For purposes of this section, an organization as defined in 25
RCW 29A.04.086 or 29A.04.097 and organized pursuant to chapter 29A.80 26
RCW shall not be considered a commercial or nonprofit company or 27
organization. 28
(3) A person making a telephone solicitation must identify him or 29
herself and the company or organization on whose behalf the 30
solicitation is being made and the purpose of the call within the 31
first 30 seconds of the telephone call. 32
(4) ((As used in this section, "telephone solicitor" means a 33
commercial or nonprofit company or organization engaged in telephone 34
solicitation.35
(5))) If the telephone solicitor is requesting a donation or gift 36
of money, the telephone solicitor must ask the called party whether 37
they want to continue the call, end the call, or be removed from the 38
solicitor's telephone lists. 39
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(((6))) (5) If, at any time during the telephone contact, the 1
called party states or indicates they want to end the call, the 2
telephone solicitor must end the call within 10 seconds.3
(((7))) (6) If, at any time during the telephone contact, the 4
called party states or indicates that he or she does not want to be 5
called again by the telephone solicitor or wants to have his or her 6
name, individual telephone number, or other contact information 7
removed from the telephone lists used by the telephone solicitor:8
(a) The telephone solicitor shall inform the called party that 9
his or her contact information will be removed from the telephone 10
solicitor's telephone lists for at least one year;11
(b) The telephone solicitor shall end the call within 10 seconds;12
(c) The telephone solicitor shall not make any additional 13
telephone solicitation of the called party at any telephone number 14
that the called party has requested be removed from the solicitor's 15
telephone lists for a period of at least one year; and16
(d) The telephone solicitor shall not sell or give the called 17
party's name, telephone number, and other contact information to 18
another company or organization: PROVIDED, That the telephone 19
solicitor may return the list, including the called party's name, 20
telephone number, and other contact information to the company or 21
organization from which it received the list. 22
(((8))) (7) A telephone solicitor shall not place calls to any 23
person which will be received before 8:00 a.m. or after 8:00 p.m. at 24
the call recipient's local time. 25
(((9))) (8) No person may initiate, or cause to be initiated, a 26
telephone solicitation to a telephone number registered on the do not 27
call registry maintained by the federal government pursuant to 28
telephone consumer protection act, 47 U.S.C. Sec. 227 and related 29
regulations, as currently enacted or subsequently amended. This 30
subsection applies to all telephone solicitation intended to be 31
received by telephone customers within the state. 32
(((10))) (9) It is unlawful for a person to initiate, or cause to 33
be initiated, a telephone solicitation that violates 47 U.S.C. Sec. 34
227(e)(1), as currently written or as subsequently amended or 35
interpreted by the federal government. This subsection applies to all 36
telephone solicitation intended to be received by telephone customers 37
within the state. 38
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(((11))) (10) A violation of subsection (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), 1
(8), or (9)((, or (10))) of this section is punishable by a fine of 2
up to $1,000 for each violation. 3
(((12))) (11) The attorney general may bring actions to enforce 4
compliance with this section. The legislature finds that the 5
practices covered by this section are matters vitally affecting the 6
public interest for the purpose of applying the consumer protection 7
act, chapter 19.86 RCW. A violation of this section is not reasonable 8
in relation to the development and preservation of business and is an 9
unfair or deceptive act in trade or commerce and an unfair method of 10
competition for the purpose of applying the consumer protection act, 11
chapter 19.86 RCW. 12
(((13))) (12) A person aggrieved by repeated violations of this 13
section may bring a civil action in superior court to enjoin future 14
violations, to recover damages, or both. The court shall award 15
damages of at least $1,000 for each individual violation of this 16
section. If the aggrieved person prevails in a civil action under 17
this subsection, the court shall award the aggrieved person 18
reasonable attorneys' fees and cost of the suit. 19
(((14))) (13) The utilities and transportation commission shall 20
by rule ensure that telecommunications companies inform their 21
residential customers of the provisions of this section. The 22
notification may be made by (a) annual notice in the billing 23
statements sent to residential customers, or (b) conspicuous 24
publication of the notice in the consumer information pages of local 25
telephone directories. 26
Sec. 2. RCW 19.190.010 and 2005 c 378 s 1 are each amended to 27
read as follows: 28
The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter 29
unless the context clearly requires otherwise. 30
(1) "Assist the transmission" means actions taken by a person to 31
provide substantial assistance or support which enables any person to 32
formulate, compose, send, originate, initiate, or transmit a 33
commercial electronic mail message or a commercial electronic text 34
message when the person providing the assistance knows or consciously 35
avoids knowing that the initiator of the commercial electronic mail 36
message or the commercial electronic text message is engaged, or 37
intends to engage, in any practice that violates the consumer 38
protection act. "Assist the transmission" does not include any of the 39
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following: (a) Activities of an electronic mail service provider or 1
other entity who provides intermediary transmission service in 2
sending or receiving electronic mail, or provides to users of 3
electronic mail services the ability to send, receive, or compose 4
electronic mail; or (b) activities of any entity related to the 5
design, manufacture, or distribution of any technology, product, or 6
component that has a commercially significant use other than to 7
violate or circumvent this section. 8
(2) "Commercial electronic mail message" means an electronic mail 9
message sent to a person for the purpose of ((promoting)) encouraging 10
the person to purchase real property, goods, or services ((for sale 11
or lease )), wrongfully obtaining anything of value, or soliciting 12
donations of money, property, goods, or services . It does not mean an 13
electronic mail message to which an interactive computer service 14
provider has attached an advertisement in exchange for free use of an 15
electronic mail account, when the sender has agreed to such an 16
arrangement. 17
(3) "Commercial electronic text message" means an electronic text 18
message sent to ((promote)) a person for the purpose of encouraging 19
the person to purchase real property, goods, or services ((for sale 20
or lease )), wrongfully obtaining anything of value, or soliciting 21
donations of money, property, goods, or services. 22
(4) "Electronic mail address" means a destination, commonly 23
expressed as a string of characters, to which electronic mail may be 24
sent or delivered. 25
(5) "Electronic mail message" means an electronic message sent to 26
an electronic mail address and a reference to an internet domain, 27
whether or not displayed, to which an electronic mail message can be 28
sent or delivered. 29
(6) "Electronic text message" means a text message sent to a 30
cellular telephone or pager equipped with short message service or 31
any similar capability, whether the message is initiated as a short 32
message service message or as an electronic mail message.33
(7) "Initiate the transmission" refers to the action by the 34
original sender of an electronic mail message or an electronic text 35
message, not to the action by any intervening interactive computer 36
service or wireless network that may handle or retransmit the 37
message, unless such intervening interactive computer service assists 38
in the transmission of an electronic mail message when it knows, or 39
consciously avoids knowing, that the person initiating the 40
p. 5 HB 1103
transmission is engaged, or intends to engage, in any act or practice 1
that violates the consumer protection act. 2
(8) "Interactive computer service" means any information service, 3
system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer 4
access by multiple users to a computer server, including specifically 5
a service or system that provides access to the internet and such 6
systems operated or services offered by libraries or educational 7
institutions. 8
(9) "Internet" means collectively the myriad of computer and 9
telecommunications facilities, including equipment and operating 10
software, that comprise the interconnected worldwide network of 11
networks that employ the transmission control protocol/internet 12
protocol, or any predecessor or successor protocols to such protocol, 13
to communicate information of all kinds by wire or radio.14
(10) "Internet domain name" refers to a globally unique, 15
hierarchical reference to an internet host or service, assigned 16
through centralized internet naming authorities, comprising a series 17
of character strings separated by periods, with the right-most string 18
specifying the top of the hierarchy. 19
(11) "Person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, 20
estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, 21
organization, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, 22
agency or instrumentality, public corporation, or any other legal or 23
commercial entity. 24
(12) "Personally identifying information" means an individual's: 25
(a) Social security number; (b) driver's license number; (c) bank 26
account number; (d) credit or debit card number; (e) personal 27
identification number; (f) automated or electronic signature; (g) 28
unique biometric data; (h) account passwords; or (i) any other piece 29
of information that can be used to access an individual's financial 30
accounts or to obtain goods or services. 31
(13) "Web page" means a location, with respect to the world wide 32
web, that has a single uniform resource locator or other single 33
location with respect to the internet. 34
Sec. 3. RCW 19.190.060 and 2003 c 137 s 3 are each amended to 35
read as follows: 36
(1) No person conducting business in the state may initiate or 37
assist in the transmission of an electronic commercial text message 38
to a telephone number assigned to a Washington resident for cellular 39
p. 6 HB 1103
telephone or pager service that is equipped with short message 1
capability or any similar capability allowing the transmission of 2
text messages. 3
(2) No person may initiate or assist in the transmission of an 4
electronic text message to a telephone number assigned to a 5
Washington resident for cellular telephone service that is registered 6
on the do not call registry maintained by the federal government 7
pursuant to the telephone consumer protection act, Title 47 U.S.C. 8
Sec. 227 and related regulations, as currently enacted or 9
subsequently amended. This subsection applies to all electronic text 10
messages intended to be received by telephone customers within the 11
state.12
(3) The legislature finds that the practices covered by this 13
section are matters vitally affecting the public interest for the 14
purpose of applying the consumer protection act, chapter 19.86 RCW. A 15
violation of this section is not reasonable in relation to the 16
development and preservation of business and is an unfair or 17
deceptive act in trade or commerce and an unfair method of 18
competition for the purpose of applying the consumer protection act, 19
chapter 19.86 RCW. 20
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