Will Let Stand Appellate Court Decision Validating Right to Enforce Federal Junk Fax Ban in California Courts, Upholds Ban as Constitutional

Los Angeles, California — Today the California Supreme Court declined to review the First District appellate court decision holding that Californians have the right to enforce a federal law banning the sending of unwanted advertisements to their fax machines. The appellate court decision that will now stand also upheld the federal junk fax law as constitutional, over the arguments of junk faxers who claimed that the ban violates their First Amendment rights. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR), a non-profit, consumer education and advocacy organization based in Santa Monica that filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the appellate court hailed today’s denial of review by the California Supreme Court as a major victory for privacy protection.

“With this definitive ruling by the California courts, junk faxers have no more excuses for not complying with the federal ban on junk faxing” stated Pamela Pressley, attorney for FTCR. “The endless junk fax assault on California fax machines must now stop once and for all.”

FTCR says it receives dozens of junk fax ads per day at its offices and has received hundreds of complaints from consumers and small business owners who have been unable to stop the continuous flow of unwanted junk fax ads. In 2001, FTCR brought two lawsuits to enforce the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which bans the sending of unsolicited fax ads and requires the sender to pay $500 per illegal fax. One of the cases was settled when the junk faxer agreed to stop sending junk faxes to anyone in the state. The other, against FAXertise, was stayed pending the outcome in the Kaufman case.

To learn more about how to stop junk faxing and the lawsuits brought by FTCR, visit FTCR’s JUNK FAX Web page at http://www.stopjunkfaxing.org.