Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont recently signed Senate Bill 1058 (SB 1058), which significantly expands the state’s telemarketing statute. Of particular importance, SB 1058 allows for a penalty of up to $20,000 per violation, meaning the financial risk for noncompliance is significant, however, the act states that it does not create a private right of action. SB 1058 will go into effect on October 1, 2023.
Who is Making the Call
Pursuant to SB 1058, the term "telemarketer" has been expanded to include affiliates or subsidiaries of any person doing business in Connecticut that makes, or causes to be made, a telephonic sales call. This broadening means that any company doing business in Connecticut, or its subsidiaries, affiliates, vendors, services providers and so forth that make a telephonic sales call will be considered a telemarketer. Additionally, the term “telephonic sales call" now means a telephone call made to a resident consumer of the state or any telephone number with a Connecticut area code.
A telephone sales call does not include: (i) if the call is in response to a request or inquiry by a consumer, including about an item the consumer purchased within the preceding twelve-month period; (ii)the call is made by a nonprofit to a consumer on an active members list of that organization; (iii) the call is limited to polling or soliciting votes or expression of ideas; (iv) the call is made as a part of a business-to-business relationship; (v) the call is made to a consumer who granted prior express written consent; (vi) the call is made primarily in connection with an existing debt or contract, payment or performance of which has not been completed at the time of the call; (vii) the call is made to an existing customer unless that customer previously opted out of receiving such calls; or (viii) the call is made on behalf of a religious, charitable, political or other noncommercial purpose.
How the Call is Made
Before the amendment, Connecticut law only prohibited unsolicited telemarketing calls if they were facilitated by using an automatic dialing system (ADS) or a prerecorded message. Now, the statute prohibits telemarketers from making any kind of telephonic sales calls to a consumer without the consumer’s prior express written consent, regardless of whether the calls are made using: (i) a live voice, (ii) an automated dialing system, (iii) recorded message devices, (iv) soundboard technology, or (v) over-the-top messaging or text or media messaging. SB 1058 further broadens the reach of Connecticut’s telemarketing laws by amending or adding key terms, including the following:
- “Voice communications” is an added term that means a communication that is made by an individual or an artificial or prerecorded message, including a voice message transmitted directly to a recipient’s voicemail regardless of whether the recipient’s phone rings as part of the transmission and does not include an automated warning required by law.
- “Text or media message” is an added term that means a message that consists of text or any image, sound or other information, including “a short message and multimedia message service that contains written, audio, video, or photographic content that is sent electronically to a mobile telephone or mobile electric device telephone number,” but excludes electronic mail sent to an electronic mail address.
Additionally, Connecticut limits telemarketing calls to between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. local time, a full hour later than other similar laws.
What the Call Must Include
The new law also created additional disclosure requirements occurring at the beginning, during and after the call ends based on the consumer’s wishes to end the call or to not receive further solicitations. Anyone making permissible telephonic sales calls must disclose, within the first 10 seconds of the call: (1) the caller’s identity, (2) the telephonic sales call’s purpose, and (3) the entity for which the person is making the call. The new law also requires the caller to ask at the beginning of the call whether the consumer wishes to continue the call, end the call, or be removed from the telephone solicitor’s list. After a consumer indicates his, her or their wish to end the call, it must end within 10 seconds.
The new changes in Connecticut’s telemarketing law highlight the intersection with consumer privacy laws and prohibit the caller from giving, selling consumer contact or personally identifying information or receiving anything of value in exchange for such information.
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