BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 2944
                                                                  Page  1

          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 2944 (Kehoe)
          As Amended August 28, 2002
          Majority vote
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |ASSEMBLY:  |     |(May 16, 2002)  |SENATE: |39-0 |(August 29,    |
          |           |     |                |        |     |2002)          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
                    (vote not relevant)

          Original Committee Reference:    U. & C.  

           SUMMARY  :  Deletes the existing state law prohibiting unsolicited  
          fax advertisements.  (This is intended to ensure that federal  
          law will prevail, and federal law prohibits unsolicited fax  
          advertisements.) 

           The Senate amendments  delete the previous Assembly version of  
          this bill, and instead eliminate the existing state law  
          prohibiting unsolicited fax advertisements.

           EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Regulates false and misleading advertising and business  
            practices and subjects violators to both civil and criminal  
            penalties.

          2)Prohibits unsolicited fax advertisements unless the person  
            sending the fax meets specified requirements.

          3)Specifies that no person or entity conducting business in this  
            state shall fax   documents consisting of unsolicited  
            advertising material promoting specified services unless that  
            person or entity establishes a toll-free telephone number.   
            Recipients of unsolicited fax material may call the toll-free  
            telephone number to advise the sender to discontinue the  
            unsolicited faxes.

          4)Specifies that all unsolicited fax documents shall include a  
            statement informing the recipient of an established toll-free  
            telephone number, or valid return address that can be used to  
            call or write to notify the sender to discontinue the  
            unsolicited faxes.  The statement shall be located in the  
            opening text of the message and shall be displayed in the same  








                                                                  AB 2944
                                                                  Page  2

            size font as the rest of the text in the message.

          5)Provides that, upon notification by a recipient of his or her  
            request not to receive any further unsolicited faxed  
            documents, no person or entity conducting business in this  
            state shall fax any unsolicited documents to that recipient.

           AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY  , this bill required the California  
          Energy Commission (CEC) to report to the Legislature by January  
          2005 on the results of a solar streetlighting pilot program in  
          San Diego if the city would have decided to conduct the program.  
           The report was to have included an analysis of the costs and  
          benefits of the materials and equipment used in the pilot  
          program and the implications for statewide implementation of the  
          program.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :   Unknown

           COMMENTS  :  This bill was substantially amended in the Senate and  
          the Assembly-approved provisions of this bill were deleted.   
          This bill as amended in the Senate is inconsistent with Assembly  
          actions. 

          The Senate amendments are virtually identical to SB 1358 (Bowen)  
          that was defeated twice in the Assembly Business and Professions  
          Committee earlier this year.  


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chris L. Gallardo / B. & P. / (916)  
          319-3301





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