Law / United States / 
California
Unsolicited and Unwanted Telephone Solicitations Act
Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17590-17594
In force.
A telephone contact rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Prohibition, Governance
As of .
What it requires
- Before placing a telephone solicitation (a call seeking to sell, rent, lease, or promote goods, services, credit, investments, or insurance, or to gather marketing information for a future sale) to a California residential or wireless number, check it against the current national Do Not Call Registry and do not call a number on it.
- You may still call a listed number if the subscriber gave you express written permission naming your business and signed by the subscriber, if the call is at the subscriber's own request, if it concerns collecting a debt or offering credit on a delinquent obligation, or if you have an established business relationship with the subscriber formed by a purchase, rental, lease, or financial transaction within the preceding 18 months.
- Do not use the Do Not Call list for any purpose other than compliance, deny a subscriber's right to be placed on it, add a subscriber to it without their knowledge or consent, sell or lease it to anyone other than a telephone solicitor, or charge a fee to place a number on it.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Neither this article nor section 17593 states its own criminal penalty, but section 17534, which applies to a violation of any provision of Chapter 1 (Advertising) and is not disclaimed here, makes a violation a misdemeanor.
Penalty structure
Civil penalty a court may award the Attorney General, a district attorney, or a city attorney under section 17593(a)(2), capped at the amount the Federal Trade Commission may seek per violation under 15 U.S.C. 45(m)(1)(A), inflation-adjusted.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per violation unit
- Violation
- Per violation amount
- 53,088
Statutory damages
Available only to a person who has obtained and properly served a small-claims injunction or order under section 17593(b) and then received a further solicitation violating it within 30 days; the small-claims court may then award a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for that subsequent violation, in addition to enforcing the injunction. A first violation carries no fixed private civil penalty of its own; claims may not be aggregated to reach a court other than small claims.
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per person minimum
- 1,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Attorney General, a district attorney, or a city attorney; a person who receives a prohibited solicitation, or whose number was misused, may also sue in small claims court for an injunction.
What this law does
Section 17590 declares the Legislature's intent to adopt the California telephone numbers on the federal Do Not Call Registry, maintained by the Federal Trade Commission, as California's own do-not-call list rather than operating a separate state list.
Section 17592 defines a telephone solicitor by the content of the call (seeking to sell, rent, lease, or promote goods, services, credit, investments, or insurance, or to gather marketing information for a future sale) and bars such a solicitor from calling a number on the current list, subject to exceptions for a subscriber's express written permission naming the caller and signed by the subscriber, a call at the subscriber's express request, a call to collect a debt or offer credit on a delinquent obligation, and a call to a subscriber with whom the solicitor has an established business relationship formed by a purchase, rental, lease, or financial transaction within the preceding 18 months.
Section 17591 separately bars using the list for any purpose other than compliance, denying a subscriber's right to be listed, adding a subscriber without consent, selling or leasing the list to anyone other than a telephone solicitor, and charging a fee to be listed.
Section 17593 lets the Attorney General, a district attorney, or a city attorney sue for an injunction and a civil penalty of up to the amount the Federal Trade Commission may seek under 15 U.S.C. section 45(m)(1)(A); a person who receives a solicitation prohibited by section 17592, or whose number was misused in violation of section 17591, may separately sue in small claims court for an injunction, and, if the defendant thereafter violates that injunction within 30 days, for a further civil penalty of up to $1,000.
Section 17534 also makes a violation of any provision of Chapter 1 (Advertising), which is not disclaimed here, a misdemeanor.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app sends automated outreach.