“A bill to modify the penalties for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1993.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section establishes criminal penalties under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 U.S.C. 227) for willful and knowing violations, providing for imprisonment of up to 1 year, fines under 18 U.S.C., or both. (Thus, aggravated offenses carry up to 3 years imprisonment if the offender has a prior conviction under this provision; initiated more than 100,000 calls in a 24-hour period, 1,000,000 calls in a 30-day period, or 10,000,000 calls in a 1-year period; acted with intent to further a felony; or caused $5,000 or more in losses in a 1-year period.) It defines "call" for this purpose to include certain messages or texts sent via automatic telephone dialing system or artificial/prerecorded voice to North American Numbering Plan numbers and "initiate" to mean sending, making, or transmitting such a call; it also makes a conforming amendment to reference these penalties. This section doubles civil penalties for providing inaccurate caller identification information, to $20,000 (from $10,000) per violation.