A new law in Ohio strengthens robocall enforcement in state court and encourages voice service providers to follow best practices recommended by the Federal Communications Commission.
Senate Bill 54, sponsored by State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Huron, gives the Ohio attorney general the authority to prosecute violations of the law in state court, as well as federal court, according to a press release from Gov. Mike DeWine, who signed the bill into law Dec. 1.
“It also establishes a safe harbor with the major telecommunications providers to protect good actors and encourage best practices recommended by the FCC. The bill also criminalizes ‘spoofing’ and increases penalties in cases where it can be shown that the spoofer or robocaller intentionally targets certain vulnerable individuals, such as the elderly, disabled, or a veteran or their spouse,” according to the press release.
The Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act defines a voice service provider as “any entity originating, carrying, or terminating voice calls through time-division multiplexing, voice over internet protocol, including interconnected or one-way voice over internet protocol, or commercial mobile radio service.”
Voice service “means any service that is interconnected with the public switched telephone network, directly or as an intermediary, and that furnishes voice communications to an end user using resources from the North American numbering plan or any successor to the North American numbering plan adopted by the federal communications commission under the Communications Act of 1934, 47 U.S.C. 251 (e)(1), and includes both of the following:
- A transmission from a telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to a telephone facsimile machine.
- Without limitation, any service that enables real-time, two-way voice communications, including any service that requires internet protocol-compatible customer premises equipment outbound calling, whether or not the service is one-way or two-way voice over internet protocol.”
According to a summary of the law, it:
- Prohibits a person, entity, or merchant from engaging in any act or practice in violation of any provision of a specified federal act or rule addressing telemarketing or consumer fraud.
- Prohibits a person from providing substantial assistance or support to any person, entity, merchant, seller, or telemarketer when that person knows or consciously avoids knowing that the other person, entity, merchant, seller, or telemarketer is engaged in any act or practice that violates any provision of the federal act or rule.
- Allows the attorney general to investigate alleged violations of those prohibitions and allows for civil penalties for those violations.
- Requires the attorney general to deposit civil penalties to the credit of the Telemarketing Fraud Enforcement Fund and specifies how those funds must be utilized.
- Specifies that the attorney general cannot bring an action for damages or a civil penalty more than five years after a violation occurs.
- Designates a violation of the prohibitions that involve a consumer transaction as an unfair or deceptive act or practice.
- Allows the attorney general to prosecute a case involving the unauthorized use of property, unauthorized use of computer, cable, or telecommunication property, or telecommunications fraud if certain conditions are met.
- Prohibits a person, having devised a scheme to defraud, from knowingly disseminating, transmitting, or causing to be disseminated or transmitted by means of a voice over internet protocol service any writing, data, sign, signal, picture, sound, or image with purpose to execute or otherwise further the scheme to defraud.
- Generally prohibits a person, with intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value, from knowingly causing, directly or indirectly, any caller identification service to transmit or display misleading or inaccurate caller identification information in connection with any telecommunication service or voice over internet protocol service.
- Specifies that if the victim of telecommunications fraud is an elderly person, disabled adult, active duty servicemember, or spouse of an active-duty service member, telecommunications fraud is a fourth-degree felony.
The law takes effect March 2, 2022.
