A key committee of the California General Assembly has cleared the way for final passage of a bill establishing telemarketing do-not-call list program operated by state’s Division of Consumer Protection.
Tuesday the Committee on Business and Professions endorsed the measure, which the Senate passed back in May, paving the way for action by the full Assembly.
Gov. Gray Davis has indicated he will sign the measure, S-771, sponsored by State Democratic Senator Liz Figueroa, into law as soon as it reaches his desk, making California the 25th state to develop and maintain a state-wide telemarketing do-not-call list.
Californians placing their names on the list would no longer be able to receive unsolicited calls from telemarketers. They still would be able to receive fundraising calls from political and nonprofit groups. The proposed law would also let credit card and insurance companies — but not their marketing affiliates — call their own customers to sell products and services.
Violators would face a $500 fine for the first unwanted call and $1,000 for each subsequent call.
While the Assembly is poised to act on that measure, the Senate is ready to vote on a bill regulating automatic dialing machines previously passed by the Assembly.
That measure, AB-870, sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman Herb Wesson, would authorize the state’s Public Utilities Commission to adopt new rules and regulations on the use of automatic or predictive dialing machines by telemarketers over the next year.
Those machines, often with pre-recorded messages, are capable of dialing four or five telephone numbers at the same time. They also have the capability of weeding out answering machines and busy signals.
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