Law / United States / 
California
Consumers Legal Remedies Act, Unsolicited Prerecorded Telephone Messages
Cal. Civ. Code § 1770(a)(22), with §§ 1780, 1782
In force.
A telephone contact rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Consent, Disclosure
What it requires
- Before disseminating an unsolicited prerecorded telephone message, first give the person answering an unrecorded, natural-voice statement of your name or the organization you represent and either your address or telephone number, and get that person's consent to listen to the prerecorded message.
- This duty does not apply to a message sent to a business associate, customer, or other person with an established relationship with you, to a call to collect an existing obligation, or to a call made at the recipient's own request.
- If a consumer sends you written notice by certified or registered mail describing a violation and demanding correction, you avoid a damages claim, though not an injunction, by giving an appropriate correction, repair, replacement, or other remedy within 30 days of that notice.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CT.PO-P1Policies, processes, and procedures for authorizing data processing (e.g., organizational decisions, individual consent), revoking authorizations, and maintaining authorizations are established and in place.
- CM.AW-P1Mechanisms (e.g., notices, internal or public reports) for communicating data processing purposes, practices, associated privacy risks, and options for enabling individuals’ data processing preferences and requests are established and in place.
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-DET-021Agent Decision Audit and Explainability
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Statutory damages
Civil Code section 1780(a)(1) sets no fixed per-violation figure for an individual consumer; it guarantees only that the total damages awarded in a class action are not less than $1,000 in the aggregate. A senior citizen or disabled consumer meeting the criteria in section 1780(b) may recover up to a further $5,000.
- As of
- Class action available
- Yes
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Private civil action under Civil Code section 1780.
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Is a person who receives an unsolicited prerecorded message but neither seeks nor acquires goods or services a "consumer" who may sue under section 1780(a), given the definition in Civil Code section 1761(d)?
- Does the exception in section 1770(a)(22)(B) for a call to a person "having an established relationship with the person or organization making the call" reach a person whose only prior contact was an inquiry that led to no purchase?
What this law does
Civil Code section 1770(a)(22) makes it an unlawful practice under the Consumers Legal Remedies Act to disseminate an unsolicited prerecorded telephone message without first giving the person answering an unrecorded, natural-voice statement of the caller's name or the represented organization and either the caller's address or telephone number, and without obtaining that person's consent to listen to the prerecorded message; this duty does not apply to a message sent to a business associate, customer, or other person with an established relationship, to a call to collect an existing obligation, or to a call made at the recipient's own request.
Section 1780(a) lets a consumer harmed by a violation of section 1770 sue for actual damages (no less than $1,000 in total in a class action), an injunction, restitution, and punitive damages, and section 1780(e) awards a prevailing consumer court costs and attorney's fees.
Section 1782 requires the consumer to send the business written notice by certified or registered mail, at least 30 days before filing for damages, describing the violation and demanding correction; the business avoids a damages claim, though not an injunction, by giving an appropriate remedy within 30 days of that notice. The sections this entry groups came into force on different days.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app places automated calls.
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