(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.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 5-61-3.5

  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Person: includes an individual, firm, association, corporation, partnership, joint venture, or any other business entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-61-2
  • Principal: means an owner; an executive officer of a corporation; a general partner of a partnership; a sole proprietor of a sole proprietorship; a trustee of a trust; or any other individual with similar supervisory functions with respect to any person. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-61-2
  • Salesperson: means any individual employed, appointed, or authorized by a telephonic seller, whether referred to by the telephonic seller as an agent, representative, or independent contractor, who attempts to solicit or solicits a sale on behalf of the telephonic seller. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-61-2
  • seller: means a person who, on his or her own behalf or through salespersons or through the use of an automatic-dialing-announcing device, causes a telephone solicitation, or attempted telephone solicitation, to occur that meets the criteria specified as follows:

    (i)  A telephone solicitation, or attempted telephone solicitation, where the telephonic seller initiates or engages in telephonic contact with a prospective purchaser and represents or implies one or more of the following:

    (A)  That a prospective purchaser who buys one or more items will also receive additional or other items, whether or not of the same type as purchased, without "further cost. See Rhode Island General Laws 5-61-2

(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.