16 TAC § 26.126
§ 26.126. Telephone Solicitation
(a)
Purpose. The purpose
of this section is to require local exchange companies (LECs)
to inform their customers of provisions of the law regarding telephone
solicitation and to require telephone solicitors to implement systems and
procedures to ensure that they do not solicit persons who ask not to receive
consumer telephone calls.
(b)
Responsibility of LECs. Each LEC shall inform its customers of the provisions
of the Business and Commerce Code, Chapter 37, and the Public Utility
Regulatory Act § 55.151 by inserting the notice prescribed by this
subsection annually in the billing statement mailed to a customer. The notice
required by this subsection shall be mailed to each customer as a bill insert.
For residential customers, the notice required by this subsection and any customer
proprietary network information (CPNI) notice required by § 26.122 of
this title (relating to Customer Proprietary Network Information) shall be
published as a single insert and mailed to the customer in a billing statement.
Each LEC shall also publish the notice required by this subsection in the
consumer information pages of its local telephone directory on the same page or
on a page adjacent to where the CPNI notice required by § 26.122 of
this title appears. The notice shall read as follows:
[See table, form or illustration in printed
version]
(c)
Responsibilities of telephone
solicitors.
(1)
Each telephone solicitor operating
in this state who makes consumer telephone calls shall implement systems and
procedures so that every effort is made not to call consumers who ask not to be
called again. Upon request, a telephone solicitor shall provide a written
description of such systems and procedures to the Public Utility Commission.
(2)
Every telephone solicitor must
state the purpose of the call, the identity of the person and company or
organization making the call, and a telephone number at which the person,
company, or organization making the call may be reached, except where the
provision of such information is prohibited under the federal Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act (15 United States Code, §§ 1692, et
seq.).
(3)
A telephone solicitor may not use
any method, including per call blocking or per line blocking,
that prevents caller identification information for the solicitor's
lines from being shown by an end user's caller identification device.
(4)
The solicitor's displayed caller
identification number must be one at which telephone calls may be received by
end users if the solicitor leaves messages on end user answering machines or
uses ADAD devices which play a recorded message. Solicitors must comply with
this provision by September 1, 1998.
(d)
Penalties for non-compliance.
Telephone solicitors who violate the provisions of subsection (c) of this
section are subject to an administrative penalty not to exceed $ 1,000 for
each day or portion of a day in which non-compliance occurs.
