The Direct Marketing Association said it is pleased with Monday’s US District Court decision that California’s fax-ban law as it applies to interstate faxes is pre-empted by federal laws.
The US District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled that provisions of the state’s Fax Ban Law that regulate interstate faxes are preempted by the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which allow faxes to be sent interstate.
Specifically, U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. ruled that the law “is unconstitutional to the extent that it attempts to govern interstate transmission of unsolicited facsimile advertisements,” according to court documents.
As a result, the State of California is not currently enjoined from enforcing SB 833 but Gerry Waldron, a partner at Covington & Burling –one of the Fax Ban Coalition’s lawyers–noted, “it is hard to imagine the State or any party moving forward in light of this decision…because any action brought under the California statute (whether by the State or a private party) will now have to deal with a federal court’s conclusion that the statute is preempted as applied to interstate faxes.”
“For small businesses especially, and those involved in business-to-business marketing, faxes remain a vital channel for communication with customers,” said Jerry Cerasale, DMA senior vice president, government relations in a statement.
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