56:8-119. Findings, declarations relative to telemarketing calls

1. a. The Legislature finds and declares that telemarketing calls:

(1) Have interrupted the public's privacy, family life and home sanctity with unsolicited phone calls to sell products and services;

(2) Cannot be selectively ignored by recipients, since the calls are commonly made by means which do not enable the recipient to use caller I.D. to identify, in advance, a telemarketing call or an emergency;

(3) May arrive at inconvenient times when a resident or family member is retired for the night;

(4) May arrive when a resident or family member is having a meal and the interruption disrupts valuable time when family members are together, where family members are more remote from a telephone and when food may, during the interruption, cool, melt, thicken, dry, or undergo a change in palatability;

(5) May arrive at inconvenient times when a resident or family member is engaged in entertainment, a compelling activity or relaxation;

(6) Use a strategy called "predictive calling" which results in tens of thousands of call recipients rushing to answer phone calls, to find no one is on the line. This results in great aggravation and inconvenience to the public, merely to spare telemarketers (who won't identify themselves as the source of the aggravation) the inconvenience of finding no one home;

(7) Have been made to wireless phone lines resulting in cost to the recipient, and in some cases, endangering the recipient's safety when they may have been driving;

(8) Have been increasing in number, causing increased inconvenience, widespread public outrage and urgent appeals to protect the public from such calls;

(9) Are not the only means for marketers to promote their product or services to prospective customers, although marketers often claim it to be more economical and more productive than other means to provide the benefits of increased competition. Marketers have available mail, email, face to face personal solicitation and various forms of advertising;

(10) Are in some cases beyond the regulatory jurisdiction of this Legislature and any New Jersey statute, because they are forms of speech protected by State and federal constitutional case law.

b. The Legislature further declares it to be the policy of this State to provide the broadest possible protection to protect public privacy and the sanctity of homes and to protect families and individuals from unsolicited interruptions.

c. It is not the intent of the State to restrict telemarketing activity where such activity is protected by State and federal case law, where such restriction is prohibited by State and federal constitutional case law or to restrict purely charitable activities.

L.2003,c.76,s.1.