Utah Code 13-65-202. Cause of action
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Terms Used In Utah Code 13-65-202
- Advertiser: means a person who advertises the person's product, service, or website through the use of commercial email. See Utah Code 13-65-101
- Commercial email: means an email used primarily to:(2)(a) advertise or promote a commercial website, product, or service; or(2)(b) solicit money, property, or personal information. See Utah Code 13-65-101
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Domain name: means any alphanumeric designation that is registered with or assigned by any domain name registrar, domain name registry, or other domain name registration authority as part of an electronic address on the Internet. See Utah Code 13-65-101
- Electronic mail service provider: means a company or a service that provides routing, relaying, handling, storage, or support for email addresses and email inboxes. See Utah Code 13-65-101
- Equal: means , with respect to biological sex, of the same value. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
- Header information: means information attached to an email, including:
(6)(a) the originating domain name;(6)(b) the originating email address;(6)(c) the destination;(6)(d) the routing information; and(6)(e) any other information that appears in the header line identifying, or purporting to identify, a person initiating the message. See Utah Code 13-65-101- Initiator: means a person who:
(8)(a)(i) originates, transmits, or sends commercial email; or(8)(a)(ii) promises, pays, or provides other consideration for another person to originate, transmit, or send a commercial email. See Utah Code 13-65-101- Person: means :
(24)(a) an individual;(24)(b) an association;(24)(c) an institution;(24)(d) a corporation;(24)(e) a company;(24)(f) a trust;(24)(g) a limited liability company;(24)(h) a partnership;(24)(i) a political subdivision;(24)(j) a government office, department, division, bureau, or other body of government; and(24)(k) any other organization or entity. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5- Recipient: means an addressee of an unsolicited email. See Utah Code 13-65-101
- Routine conveyance: means an Internet service provider's or email provider's automatic electronic mail message processes, including routing, relaying, handling, or storing through an automatic technical process, for which a person other than the Internet service provider or email provider has identified the electronic mail message recipients and provided the recipients' addresses. See Utah Code 13-65-101
- Unsolicited commercial email: means a commercial email sent by an advertiser to a recipient that:
(12)(a) has not provided direct consent to the advertiser to receive the commercial email; and(12)(b) does not have a preexisting or current relationship with the advertiser. See Utah Code 13-65-101(1)(a) The following persons may bring a claim against an advertiser or initiator who violates Section 13-65-201:(1)(a)(i) an electronic mail service provider;(1)(a)(ii) a recipient of an unsolicited commercial email; or(1)(a)(iii) a person whose brand, trademark, email address, or domain name an advertiser or initiator uses, without authorization, in the header information.(1)(b) There is a rebuttable presumption that a commercial email that violates Section 13-65-201 is an unsolicited commercial email.(1)(c) The burden of proving that a commercial email is not an unsolicited commercial email is on the defendant.(2)(2)(a) A person described in Subsection (1)(a)(i) or (ii) may recover:(2)(a)(i) actual damages; and(2)(a)(ii) except as provided in Subsection (2)(c), liquidated damages of $1,000 for each unsolicited commercial email transmitted in violation of Section 13-65-201.(2)(b) If an addressee of an unsolicited commercial email has more than one email address to which an advertiser or an initiator sends an unsolicited commercial email, the addressee is considered a separate recipient for each email address to which the advertiser or the initiator sends the unsolicited commercial email.(2)(c) If a court finds that an advertiser or an initiator used due diligence to establish and implement practices and procedures to effectively prevent unsolicited commercial emails in violation of this chapter, the court shall reduce the liquidated damages to $100 for each unsolicited commercial email transmitted in violation of Section 13-65-201.(3) A person described in Subsection (1)(a)(iii) may recover:(3)(a) actual damages; and(3)(b) liquidated damages in an amount equal to the lesser of:(3)(b)(i) $1,000 for each commercial email transmitted in violation of this chapter that uses, without authorization, a person’s brand, trademark, email address, or domain name in the header information; and(3)(b)(ii) $2,000,000.(4) The prevailing party in an action brought under this section may recover reasonable attorney fees and costs.(5)(5)(a) Defendants in an action under this section are jointly and severally liable.(5)(b) There is no cause of action under this section against an electronic mail service provider who is involved only in the routine conveyance of commercial email over the email service provider’s computer network.
