Chapter 22.5Commercial Directories

Section § 22600

Explanation

This law requires publishers to get written permission from a subscriber before including their fax machine number in commercial phone directories, unless the number is already publicly listed by phone companies. Publishers need to inform subscribers about this rule and can keep publishing fax numbers already listed before mid-1991 unless the subscriber asks to be removed. If a subscriber requests removal, future directories must not include their fax number. Violating this rule results in a $500 fine per infraction.

(a)CA Business and Professions Code § 22600(a) Every publisher shall, prior to including a telephone number for a facsimile machine in any commercial directory of telephone numbers, obtain the written consent of the subscriber who has been assigned the number unless the telephone number for the facsimile machine is obtained from a telephone corporation’s alphabetical or classified directory of telephone numbers.
(b)CA Business and Professions Code § 22600(b) As used in this section:
(1)CA Business and Professions Code § 22600(b)(1) “Commercial directory” does not include an alphabetical directory of telephone numbers or a classified directory published by a telephone corporation.
(2)CA Business and Professions Code § 22600(b)(2) “Telephone number for a facsimile machine” means any number designated in a directory as being for a facsimile machine or any number included in a directory represented to be a directory of telephone numbers for facsimile machines.
(c)CA Business and Professions Code § 22600(c)  Every publisher shall notify, in writing, all of the subscribers of the facsimile telephone numbers printed in the publisher’s directory of the requirements of this chapter on or before April 1, 1991. Unless the subscriber thereafter notifies the publisher otherwise, telephone numbers for facsimile machines published prior to July 1, 1991, without the written consent of the subscriber, may continue to be published by that publisher. Upon notification by the subscriber that he or she desires to be excluded from the directory, all subsequent volumes of the directory shall exclude the subscriber’s facsimile telephone number.
(d)CA Business and Professions Code § 22600(d) Every violation of subdivision (a) is an infraction punishable by a fine of five hundred dollars ($500).
facsimile machine fax numbers commercial directory written consent subscriber notification telephone corporation alphabetical directory classified directory infraction fine directory exclusion consent requirement phone directory rules publisher obligations
(Added by Stats. 1990, Ch. 973, Sec. 1.)