ASSEMBLY, No. 130

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

210th LEGISLATURE

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2002 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman NILSA CRUZ-PEREZ

District 5 (Camden and Gloucester)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Fisher

SYNOPSIS

    Prohibits the sending of certain bulk commercial electronic mail.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

    Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.

(Sponsorship Updated As Of: 1/24/2003)

An Act concerning unsolicited bulk commercial electronic mail and supplementing Title 56 of the Revised Statutes.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "New Jersey Unsolicited Bulk Commercial Electronic Mail Act."

    2. As used in this act:

    "Commercial electronic mail" means messages or information transmitted through an electronic mail service provider's computer network for the purpose of advertising the sale of goods or services to end-users of electronic mail services.

    "Electronic mail address" means a destination commonly expressed as a string of characters to which electronic mail may be sent or delivered.

    "Electronic mail service provider" means any person who is an intermediary in sending or receiving electronic mail and who provides to end-users of electronic mail services the ability to send or receive electronic mail.

    "Person" means any individual, partnership, association, corporation or joint venture.

    3. a. Notwithstanding the provisions of any law, rule, regulation or order to the contrary, no person shall send to an individual's electronic mail address unsolicited commercial electronic mail with false or deceptive message headers that are likely to confuse or mislead the end-user of electronic mail services as to the type of product or service offered for sale by the sender, in connection with the transmission of unsolicited bulk commercial electronic mail through or into the computer network of an electronic mail service provider or its subscribers.

    b. Any person injured by a violation of subsection a. of this section may bring an action in Superior Court to recover, in lieu of actual damages, ten dollars for each and every unsolicited commercial electronic mail message transmitted in violation of subsection a. of this section, or $25,000 per day for each day the violation occurs, whichever is less.

    4. This act shall take effect 180 days after enactment.

STATEMENT

    This bill would prohibit the sending of unsolicited bulk commercial electronic mail, commonly referred to as "spam," with false or deceptive message headers that are likely to confuse or mislead an individual as to the product or service offered for sale by the sender. Misleading and unsolicited bulk commercial electronic mail is an undesirable side effect of the use by consumers of the Internet and commercial online services.

    This bill is intended to add a strong legal tool to the various self-help remedies used by consumers to screen out misleading and unsolicited electronic mail advertisements by allowing a recipient of such advertisements to recover from the sender, in lieu of actual damages, an amount equal to either ten dollars for each commercial message transmitted in violation of this bill or $25,000 per day for each day the violation occurs, whichever is less.