Congressional Action to Stop Junk Faxes Allows Small Businesses to Communicate With Customers

With the passage of the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005 (S. 714), signed by President Bush on July 9^th, Congress has acted to stop junk faxes while ensuring that small businesses can communicate with their customers.  The legislation ensures that businesses can send faxes to customers with whom they already have an established business relationship without having to obtain written prior approval.   

The legislation prohibits sending unsolicited fax advertisements to anyone who has requested that they not be sent.  Unsolicited faxes can be sent if the senders have an established business relationship with the customer and the fax contains a conspicuous notice on its first page that the recipient may request not to be sent any further unsolicited faxes.  To prevent third party mass marketers from buying fax lists, businesses must obtain fax numbers either directly from the recipient, or from a published source such as a directory, advertisement or Internet site.

The Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005 overturns overly broad regulations issued by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in July, 2003.  Those regulations would have made it illegal for businesses to send faxes to even long-time customers unless they had specific written permission to send a fax to a particular number.  The FCC regulations were opposed by a broad range of over 600 businesses and trade associations who joined the �Fax Ban Coalition� organized to oppose and reverse the FCC�s regulations.