Faxing NOT Prohibited by Law

Brokers have been pondering whether new fax regulations allow the faxing of information to customers or not. A new Junk Fax Prevention Act was signed by President Bush on July 9, 2005. Before passage of this bill, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had prohibited faxing of information, even when requested, unless written consent to receive the fax had been received. There was a lot of confusion because that law was set to go into effect on January 1, 2005, then extended to June 30, 2005 and then January 9, 2006.

The new Junk Fax Prevention Act does away with this onerous FCC rule requiring prior written permission. The new law does ban the faxing of unsolicited advertisements. However, there is an exemption for fax senders who have an established business relationship with their fax recipients. Under this exception, however, the fax senders must provide in a prescribed manner the opportunity for fax recipients to opt out of future unsolicited advertisements.

The FCC will be issuing new regulations implementing this law, including guidelines on what constitutes an established business relationship and what the opt-out entails.

This report does not constitute a legal opinion. Specifics should be obtained from your company attorney before acting on this information.