§ 5-61-3.5. Do not call lists.
(a) No salesperson or telephonic seller shall make, or cause to be made, any unsolicited
telephonic sales calls to any residential, mobile, or telephonic-paging-device telephone
number unless the salesperson or telephonic seller has instituted procedures for maintaining
a list of persons who do not wish to receive telephonic sales calls made by or on
behalf of that person, in compliance with 47 C.F.R. Part 64 or 16 C.F.R. Part 310. Additionally, no person or entity conducting business in this state shall transmit,
or cause to be transmitted, a text message advertisement to a cellular telephone or
pager equipped with short message capability or any similar capability allowing the
transmission of text messages. A text message advertisement is a message, the principal
purpose of which is to promote the sale of goods or services to the recipient, consisting
of advertising material for the lease, sale, rental, gift, offer, or disposition of
realty, goods, services, or extension of credit.
(1) This section shall apply when a text message advertisement is transmitted to a telephone
number assigned for a cellular telephone or pager service to a Rhode Island resident.
(2) This section shall not apply to text messages transmitted at the direction of a person
or entity offering cellular telephone or pager service if the subscriber is offered
an option not to receive those text messages.
(3) This section shall not apply to text messages transmitted by a business that has an
existing relationship with the subscriber if the subscriber is offered an option not
to receive text messages from that business.
(4) This section shall not apply to text messages transmitted by an affiliate of a business
that has an existing relationship with the subscriber, but only if the subscriber
has provided consent to the business with which he or she has the relationship to
receive text messages from affiliates of that business. "Affiliate� means any company
that controls, is controlled by, or is under the common control with, another company.
(5) This section shall not impose an obligation on a person or entity offering cellular
or pager service to control the transmission of a text message unless the message
is transmitted at the direction of that person or entity.
(b) Any person who violates any provision of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor,
and upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars
($500) per violation.