Note: Kentucky does not have a comprehensive statutory scheme, but
does regulate credit repair business under its telephone solicitation rules, as
follows.
KRS § 367.46955
Baldwin's Kentucky Revised Statutes Annotated
Title XXIX. Commerce and Trade
Chapter 367. Consumer Protection
Telephone Solicitations
367.46955 Prohibited telephone solicitation acts and practices
It is a prohibited telephone solicitation act or practice and a violation of KRS 367.46951 to 367.46999 for any person making a telephone solicitation to engage in the following conduct:
(1) Advertising or representing that registration as a telemarketer equals an
endorsement or approval by any government or governmental agency;
(2) Requesting a fee in advance to remove derogatory information from or improve
a person's credit history or credit record;
(3) Requesting or receiving a payment in advance from a person to recover or
otherwise aid in the return of money or any other item lost by the consumer in a
prior telephone solicitation transaction;
(4) Requesting or receiving payment of any fee or consideration in advance of
obtaining a loan or other extension of credit when the telemarketing company has
guaranteed or represented a high likelihood of success in obtaining or arranging
a loan or other extension of credit for a person;
(5) Obtaining or submitting for payment a check, draft, or other form of
negotiable paper drawn on a person's checking, savings, or bond or other account
without the consumer's express written authorization, or charging a credit card
account or making electronic transfer of funds except in conformity with KRS
367.46963;
(6) Procuring the services of any professional delivery, courier, or other
pickup service to obtain immediate receipt or possession of a consumer's
payment, unless the goods are delivered with the opportunity to inspect before
any payment is collected;
(7) Assisting, supporting, or providing substantial assistance to any
telemarketer when the telemarketing company knew or should have known that the
telemarketer was engaged in any act or practice prohibited under this section;
(8) Making a telephone solicitation to anyone under eighteen (18) years of age.
When making a telephone solicitation the telemarketer shall inquire as to
whether the person is eighteen (18) years of age or older and the answer shall
be presumed to be correct;
(9) Utilizing any method to block or otherwise circumvent the use of a caller
identification service when placing an unsolicited telephone solicitation call;
(10) Directing or permitting employees to use a fictitious name or not to use their name while making a telephone solicitation;
(11) Threatening, intimidating, or using profane or obscene language;
(12) Causing the telephone to ring more than thirty (30) seconds in an intended telephone solicitation;
(13) Engaging any person repeatedly or continuously with behavior a reasonable person would deem to be annoying, abusive, or harassing;
(14) Initiating a telephone solicitation call to a person, when that person
has stated previously that he or she does not wish to receive solicitation calls
from that seller;
(15) (a) Making or causing to be made an unsolicited telephone solicitation call
if the residential number for that telephone appears in the current publication
of the zero call list maintained by the Office of the Attorney General, Division
of Consumer Protection. Any holder of a residential telephone number may notify
the division and be placed on a zero call list indicating the wish not to
receive unsolicited telephone solicitation calls by notification to the
division. The telephone numbers of persons requesting to be on the zero call
list shall remain on the list until the person rescinds his or her name from the
list.
(b) The zero call list shall be updated, published, and distributed on a
quarterly basis in electronic and hard copy and may be made available in other
formats at the discretion of the division. After the publication of the list
each quarter each telemarketing company, telemarketer, and merchant shall be
deemed to be on notice not to solicit any person whose telephone number appears
on the list. The list shall be made available to requesters either on a
statewide or county by county basis;
(16) Making telephone solicitations to a person's residence at any time other than between 10 a.m.--9 p.m. local time, at the called person's location;
(17) Selling or making available for economic gain any information revealed during a telephone solicitation without the express written consent of the consumer;
(18) Making a telephone solicitation to any residential telephone using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver a message, unless the call is initiated for emergency purposes by schools regulated by the Kentucky Department of Education or the call is made with the prior express consent of the called party; or
(19) Engaging in any unfair, false, misleading, or deceptive practice or act as part of a telephone solicitation.
HISTORY: 2002 c 21, § 2, eff. 7-15-02; 1998 c 581, § 3, eff. 7-15-98
Legislative Research Commission Note (7-15-02): Under the authority of KRS
7.136, the Reviser of Statutes has corrected a clearly erroneous statutory
reference in subsection (5) of this section as enacted in 2002 Ky. Acts ch. 21,
sec. 2, by changing "KRS 367.46953" to "KRS 367.46963."
Case Law
I identified no significant cases construing the act.