ALEXANDRIA, Va.
-- Businesses would be permitted to send commercial faxes without
prior consent from the recipient, so long as a business
relationship had been previously established under a bill (S. 714)
recently approved by Congress.
ASTA was pleased
to play an active role in the Fax Ban Coalition, which worked for
two years to extend the timetable for small businesses like travel
agencies to comply with the FCC rules on sending faxes to
customers, said Kathryn Sudeikis, ASTA president and CEO. The Junk
Fax Prevention Act is a common-sense solution that enables
businesses to continue to send faxes to their established
customers, just as they do now and have for years, while
maintaining the strict prohibition on unwanted junk
faxes.
The Junk Fax
Prevention Act, supported by several trade groups, including travel
associations, is expected to be signed into law by President Bush
before July 1.
Thats when a
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation requiring
businesses to first receive written permission from recipients
before sending them faxes or face hefty fines was originally slated
to go into effect. The effective date of the rule would be
postponed once the bill is signed.
However, the junk fax issue
is far from over.
For instance, the
FCC is expected to develop regulations by January regarding a new
opt-in requirement within the bill. ASTA said language in the bill
requires the opt-out message to be on the first page of the fax and
must offer the recipient a cost-free mechanism for opting out, such
as a local or toll-free number.
Within the bill,
explained Paul Ruden, ASTA staff senior vice president of Legal and
Industry Affairs, are some authorizations for the FCC to do some
additionally rule making. So I image we are going to have some more
rule makings and more lobbying on the part of ASTA and other trade
groups.
There is no
question about it, Ruden said. We still have to stop the FCC from
exercising its power in adverse ways and conversely they have some
opportunities to do some things for small business that we want to
promote. So there is a lot more work to do.
To contact
reporter Michael Milligan, send e-mail to [email protected].