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91_HB2819
LRB9104581WHpr
1 AN ACT relating to electronic mail.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
5 Unsolicited Electronic Mail Consumer Protection Act.
6 Section 5. Findings and purpose. The General Assembly
7 finds that the volume of commercial electronic mail is
8 growing and the number of consumer complaints about
9 commercial electronic mail is increasing. Interactive
10 computer service providers indicate that their systems
11 sometimes cannot handle the volume of commercial electronic
12 mail being sent and that filtering systems fail to screen out
13 unsolicited commercial electronic mail messages when senders
14 use a third party's Internet domain name without the third
15 party's permission, or otherwise misrepresent the message's
16 point of origin. The General Assembly seeks to provide some
17 immediate relief to interactive computer service providers by
18 prohibiting the sending of commercial electronic mail
19 messages that use a third party's Internet domain name
20 without the third party's permission, misrepresent the
21 message's point of origin, or contain untrue or misleading
22 information in the subject line.
23 Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act, unless the
24 context clearly requires otherwise:
25 "Commercial electronic mail message" means an electronic
26 mail message sent for the purpose of promoting real property,
27 goods, or services for sale or lease.
28 "Electronic mail address" means a destination, commonly
29 expressed as a string of characters, to which electronic mail
30 may be sent or delivered.
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1 "Initiate the transmission" refers to the action by the
2 original sender of an electronic mail message, not to the
3 action by any intervening interactive computer service that
4 may handle or retransmit the message.
5 "Interactive computer service" means any information
6 service, system, or access software provider that provides or
7 enables computer access by multiple users to a computer
8 server, including specifically a service or system that
9 provides access to the Internet and such systems operated or
10 services offered by libraries or educational institutions.
11 "Internet domain name" refers to a globally unique,
12 hierarchical reference to an Internet host or service,
13 assigned through centralized Internet naming authorities,
14 comprising a series of character strings separated by
15 periods, with the right-most string specifying the top of the
16 hierarchy.
17 Section 15. Unsolicited or misleading electronic mail;
18 prohibition.
19 (a) No person, corporation, limited liability company,
20 firm, partnership, association, or other entity may initiate
21 the transmission of a commercial electronic mail message from
22 a computer located in Illinois or to an electronic mail
23 address that the sender knows, or has reason to know, is held
24 by an Illinois resident that:
25 (1) uses a third party's Internet domain name
26 without permission of the third party, or otherwise
27 misrepresents any information in identifying the point of
28 origin or the transmission path of a commercial
29 electronic mail message; or
30 (2) contains false or misleading information in the
31 subject line.
32 (b) For purposes of this Section, a person, corporation,
33 limited liability company, firm, partnership, association, or
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1 other entity knows that the intended recipient of a
2 commercial electronic mail message is an Illinois resident if
3 that information is available, upon request, from the
4 registrant of the Internet domain name contained in the
5 recipient's electronic mail address.
6 Section 20. Unsolicited or misleading electronic mail;
7 violation of Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices
8 Act. It is a violation of the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive
9 Business Practices Act to initiate the transmission of a
10 commercial electronic mail message that:
11 (i) uses a third party's internet domain name without
12 permission of the third party, or otherwise misrepresents any
13 information in identifying the point of origin or the
14 transmission path of a commercial electronic mail message; or
15 (ii) contains false or misleading information in the
16 subject line.
17 Section 25. Violations; damages.
18 (a) Damages to the recipient of a commercial electronic
19 mail message sent in violation of this Act are $500 or actual
20 damages, whichever is greater.
21 (b) Damages to an interactive computer service resulting
22 from a violation of this Act are $1,000 or actual damages,
23 whichever is greater.
24 Section 30. Blocking of commercial electronic mail by
25 interactive computer service; immunity from liability.
26 (a) An interactive computer service may, upon its own
27 initiative, block the receipt or transmission through its
28 service of any commercial electronic mail that it reasonably
29 believes is, or will be, sent in violation of this Act.
30 (b) No interactive computer service may be held liable
31 for any action voluntarily taken in good faith to block the
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1 receipt or transmission through its service of any commercial
2 electronic mail that it reasonably believes is, or will be,
3 sent in violation of this Act.
4 Section 900. The Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business
5 Practices Act is amended by changing Section 2Z as follows:
6 (815 ILCS 505/2Z) (from Ch. 121 1/2, par. 262Z)
7 Sec. 2Z. Violations of other Acts. Any person who
8 knowingly violates the Automotive Repair Act, the Dance
9 Studio Act, the Physical Fitness Services Act, the Hearing
10 Instrument Consumer Protection Act, the Illinois Union Label
11 Act, the Job Referral and Job Listing Services Consumer
12 Protection Act, the Travel Promotion Consumer Protection Act,
13 the Credit Services Organizations Act, the Automatic
14 Telephone Dialers Act, the Pay-Per-Call Services Consumer
15 Protection Act, the Telephone Solicitations Act, the Illinois
16 Funeral or Burial Funds Act, the Cemetery Care Act, or the
17 Pre-Need Cemetery Sales Act, or Section 20 of the Unsolicited
18 Electronic Mail Consumer Protection Act commits an unlawful
19 practice within the meaning of this Act.
20 (Source: P.A. 89-72, eff. 12-31-95; 89-615, eff. 8-9-96;
21 90-426, eff. 1-1-98.)