PLEASE NOTE: Legislative Information cannot perform research, provide legal advice, or interpret Maine law. For legal assistance, please contact a qualified attorney.
An Act To Prohibit the Providing of Misleading or Inaccurate Information via Caller Identification Services during Telemarketing Calls
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 10 MRSA §1499-A, as enacted by PL 2003, c. 70, §1 and affected by §2, is amended to read:
§ 1499-A.Telemarketing; prohibition on number blocking and misleading caller identification
 
1. Definitions.   As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.
 
A. "Caller identification service" means a service that allows a telephone subscriber to have the telephone number and, where available, name of the calling party transmitted contemporaneously with the telephone call and displayed on a device in or connected to the subscriber's telephone.
 
B. "Seller" means any person who, in connection with a telemarketing transaction, provides, offers to provide or arranges for others to provide goods or services to the customer in exchange for consideration.
 
C. "Telemarketer" means any person who, in connection with telemarketing, initiates or receives telephone calls to or from a customer or donor.
 
D. "Telemarketing" means a plan, program or campaign that is conducted by use of one or more telephones or other telecommunications services, including interconnected voice over Internet protocol, to induce the purchase of goods or services or a charitable contribution and that involves more than one intrastate telephone call. "Telemarketing" does not include the solicitation of sales through the mailing of a catalog that contains a written description or illustration of the goods or services offered for sale, the business address of the seller and multiple pages of written material or illustrations, and that is issued not less frequently than once a year, if the person making the solicitation does not solicit customers by telephone but only receives calls initiated by customers in response to the catalog and during those calls takes orders without further solicitation. For purposes of this paragraph, the term "further solicitation" does not include providing the customer with information about, or attempting to sell, any other item included in the same catalog that prompted the customer's call or in a substantially similar catalog.
 
2. Prohibition.   Except as provided in subsection 3, it is an unfair trade practice, as prohibited by Title 5, section 207, for a seller or telemarketer to fail to transmit or cause to be transmitted the telephone number and, when made available by the telemarketer's carrier, the name of the telemarketer to any caller identification service in use by a recipient of a telemarketing call.
 
2-A.  Misleading or inaccurate caller identification information prohibited; penalty.     A seller or telemarketer may not knowingly cause any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with the intent to defraud or cause harm to another person or to wrongfully obtain anything of value. In addition to any other penalty provided by this section, a person found guilty of violating this subsection commits a civil violation for which a fine of not less than $500 for the first offense and not less than $1,000 for any subsequent offense must be adjudged and for which the seller or telemarketer must pay restitution of any financial benefit secured through conduct proscribed by this subsection.
 
3. Exception.   It is not a violation of subsection 2 or 2-A for a seller or telemarketer to substitute for the name and telephone number used in or billed for making the call:
 
A. The name of the seller or charitable organization on whose behalf the telemarketing call is placed; and
 
B. The seller's or charitable organization's customer or donor service telephone number that is answered during regular business hours.
 
SUMMARY
This bill makes it a civil violation for a seller or telemarketer engaging in a telemarketing call to knowingly cause any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification with the intent to defraud or cause harm to another person or to wrongfully obtain anything of value. It establishes a fine of not less than $500 for the first offense and of not less than $1,000 for any subsequent offense to be imposed in addition to any other penalties imposed under the law regarding telemarketing and caller identification and requires restitution to be paid.