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On June 27. 2005 the FCC
postponed the effective date of the do-not-fax rules until January 9, 2006, to give Congress and the president more time to
complete consideration of the junk fax bill.
The rules were scheduled
to take effect on July 1, 2005 and would have imposed unfair and costly changes to REALTOR® marketing
practices.
On June 28, Legislation
backed by the National Association of REALTORS® that would alleviate problems created by do-not-fax rules for consumers and
businesses alike was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. The Junk Fax Prevention Act, S. 714, has
been forwarded to President Bush for his signature.
The Junk Fax Prevention Act permits REALTORS® to continue to send faxes to their established customers,
clients and co-workers, just as they do now and have for years, while maintaining the strict prohibition on unwanted junk-faxes.
As approved, the bill does not legalize unsolicited fax
advertisements or solicitations but does allow for an established business relationship exception. Once enacted, unsolicited
commercial faxes may be sent without prior permission as long as:
"the established business relationship
predates the enactment of the Junk Fax Prevention Act, or in the case of a new established business relationship, the fax
number was provided voluntarily by the recipient or is publicly available in a published directory, advertisement or website."
This
will cover faxes that occur in the everyday business of REALTORS® which include information such as listing information, representation
agreements and comparative market analyses.
The bill also clarifies that verbal permission to fax
is an allowed means of granting express permission to fax and creates a new consumer right to opt-out of receiving future
faxes. Senders will be required to include opt-out instructions on the first page of any commercial fax sent and must provide
a no-cost means for consumers to opt-out. Examples of a cost-free opt-out mechanism include an email address to which to reply
and a local or toll-free phone number. A phone number that is a long-distance or toll call would not meet the bill's
requirements.
NAR-Backed
Junk Fax Bill
NAR strongly supports efforts to limit unsolicited faxes, including
the creation of a new consumer right to “opt out” of receiving faxes even from those with whom the recipient has
an established business relationship. The association believes that the Federal Communications Commission went too far by
requiring signed, written permission before sending faxes. NAR estimates that REALTORS® would have been
forced to create and store over 66 million permission forms to sustain the over 6 million home sales transactions that occurred
last year.
“Passage of the junk fax bill represents a major victory for consumers and businesses alike. Without
this bill, REALTORS® would not have been able to fax property listings to consumers who call and request
such information without first getting written permission,” said NAR President Al Mansell of Salt Lake City. “NAR
commends Congress for passing legislation that will eliminate junk faxes without creating costly regulations that burden legitimate
businesses and hamper consumers’ ability to receive requested information in a timely manner.”
Last
year, the FCC postponed the effective date of the fax rules for six months in response to a petition filed by NAR, state associations
of REALTORS® and the Fax Ban Coalition, a broad-based group of over 600 businesses and trade organizations
including NAR. Without the extended stay or legislative action, the fax rules
would have taken effect on July 1, 2005.
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