Wyoming Telephone Solicitation
WY Stat § 40-12-301, et seq.
Wyoming Statutes
Title 40 - Trade and Commerce
Chapter 12 - Consumer Protection
Article 3 - Telephone Solicitation
Section 40-12-301 - Definitions.
Section 40-12-302 - Telephone Solicitations.
Section 40-12-303 - Automated Sales Calls.
Section 40-12-304 - Investigation of Complaints; Enforcement; Attorney's Fees.
Section 40-12-305 - Notice of Activity and Consent to Service of Process.
40-12-301. Definitions.
(a) As used in this article:
(i) "Caller identification service" means a type of telephone service or system which allows telephone subscribers to see the telephone numbers from which incoming telephone calls are dialed;
(ii) "Consumer" means an actual or prospective purchaser, lessee or recipient of consumer goods or services;
(iii) "Consumer goods or services" means any real property or any tangible or intangible personal property or any services which are marketed and intended to be used for personal, family or household purposes, including, without limitation, any such property intended to be attached to or installed in any real property without regard to whether it is so attached or installed, as well as cemetery lots and timeshare estates;
(iv) "Doing business in this state" refers to businesses which conduct telephonic sales calls from a location in Wyoming or from other states or nations to consumers located in Wyoming;
(v) "Enforcing authority" means the Wyoming attorney general;
(vi) "Established business relationship" means a prior or existing relationship formed by a voluntary two-way communication between a seller or telephone solicitor and a consumer with or without an exchange of consideration, on the basis of an inquiry, application, purchase or transaction by the consumer regarding products or services offered by such seller or telephone solicitor which relationship has not been previously terminated by either party;
(vii) "Merchant" means a person who, directly or indirectly, offers or makes available to consumers any consumer goods or services;
(viii) "National do-not-call list" means the list maintained by the Telephone Preference Service of the Direct Marketing Association, Inc., Farmingdale, New York, or its successor organization;
(ix) "Telephonic sales call" means a call made by a telephone solicitor to a consumer, for the purpose of soliciting a sale of any consumer goods or services, for the purpose of soliciting an extension of credit for consumer goods or services, or for the purpose of obtaining information that will or may be used for the direct solicitation of a sale of consumer goods or services or an extension of credit for such purposes;
(x) "Telephone solicitor" means any natural person, business entity or a subsidiary or affiliate thereof, doing business in this state, who makes or causes to be made a telephonic sales call, including, but not limited to, calls made by use of automated dialing devices;
(xi) "Unpublished cellular telephone number" means a cellular telephone number:
(A) That has not been requested by the subscriber to be published in any telephone directory or any list of telephone service subscribers; and
(B) Whose prefix or telephone number has been determined by the public service commission to be primarily for cellular telephone service.
(xii) "Unsolicited telephonic sales call" means a telephonic sales call other than a call made:
(A) In response to an express request of the person called;
(B) Primarily in connection with an existing debt or contract, payment or performance of which has not been completed at the time of the call;
(C) To any person with whom the telephone solicitor had an established business relationship; or
(D) By a telephone solicitor or merchant making less than two hundred twenty-five (225) unsolicited calls per year.
40-12-302. Telephone solicitations.
(a) Any telephone solicitor or merchant who makes an unsolicited telephonic sales call to a residential or mobile telephone number shall disclose at the outset of the conversation and in a clear and conspicuous manner to the person receiving the call, the following information:
(i) The name of the individual caller;
(ii) The identity of the telephone solicitor or merchant and a telephone number and address at which the telephone solicitor or merchant may be contacted;
(iii) That the purpose of the call is to sell consumer goods or services; and
(iv) The nature of the consumer goods or services.
(b) No telephone solicitor or merchant shall willfully make or cause to be made any unsolicited telephonic sales call to any residential, mobile or telephonic paging device telephone number more than sixty (60) days after the number for that telephone appears in the national do-not-call list. This subsection does not apply to any person who calls an actual or prospective seller or lessor of real property when the call is made in response to a yard sign or other form of advertisement placed by the seller or lessor.
(c) No telephone solicitor or merchant who makes an unsolicited telephonic sales call to the telephone line of a residential subscriber in this state shall knowingly utilize any method to block or otherwise circumvent the subscriber's use of a caller identification service.
(d) No telephone solicitor shall initiate any unsolicited telephonic sales call to a consumer before the hour of 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. local time at the consumer's location.
(e) No telephone solicitor or merchant shall willfully make or cause to be made any unsolicited telephonic sales call to any unpublished cellular telephone number.
40-12-303. Automated sales calls.
(a) No telephone solicitor or merchant shall make or knowingly allow a telephonic sales call to be made if the call involves an automated system for the selection or dialing of telephone numbers or the playing of a recorded message when a connection is completed to a number called.
(b) Subsection (a) of this section does not prohibit the use of an automated telephone dialing system with live messages if:
(i) The calls are made or messages given solely in response to calls initiated by the persons to whom the automatic calls or live messages are directed;
(ii) The telephone numbers selected for automatic dialing have been screened to exclude any telephone subscriber who is included on the national do-not-call list and any unlisted telephone number; or
(iii) The call is to a consumer with whom the caller had an established business relationship.
40-12-304. Investigation of complaints; enforcement; attorney's fees.
(a) The enforcing authority shall investigate any complaints received concerning violations of this article. If, after investigating any complaint, the enforcing authority finds that there has been a willful violation of this article, the enforcing authority may bring an action to impose a civil penalty and to seek other relief, including injunctive relief, as the court deems appropriate against the telephone solicitor or merchant. The civil penalty imposed shall be as follows:
(i) For the first violation, not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00);
(ii) For the second violation, not to exceed two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500.00);
(iii) For the third and subsequent violations, not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) per violation.
(b) An action under this section may be brought in the district court of the county in which the telephone solicitor or merchant resides or had its principle place of business or in the district court of Laramie county Wyoming. The civil penalty provided under this section may be recovered in any action brought under this article by the enforcing authority, or the enforcing authority may terminate any investigation or action upon agreement by the telephone solicitor or merchant to pay a stipulated civil penalty. The enforcing authority or the court may waive any civil penalty if the telephone solicitor or merchant has previously made full restitution or reimbursement or has paid actual damages to the consumers who have been injured by the violation.
(c) In any civil litigation resulting from a transaction involving a violation of this article, the prevailing party, after judgment in the trial court and exhaustion of all appeals, if any, shall receive reasonable attorney's fees and costs from the nonprevailing party.
(d) The remedies provided by this section are not exclusive and shall not preclude the imposition of any other relief or criminal penalties provided by law.
(e) It shall be an affirmative defense to an action brought by an enforcing authority for a violation of W.S. 40-12-302(b) that the person called a consumer listed on the national do-not-call list as a result of a good faith error.
40-12-305. Notice of activity and consent to service of process.
Each telephone solicitor or merchant making unsolicited telephonic sales calls and doing business in this state shall file with the attorney general of this state a statement giving notice of this fact and designating the secretary of state of this state its agent for service of process, unless a lawful resident is designated as agent for service of process, for any alleged violation of this article. The written notice shall further set forth the intention of the telephone solicitor or merchant to abide by the provisions of this article. Compliance with this section shall not subject any telephone solicitor or merchant to the provisions or consequences of any other statute of this state.
For more information, see here: https://wyoleg.gov/NXT/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm
These materials were obtained directly from the State Legislative websites and are posted here for your review and reference only. No Claim to Original State Government Works. This may not be the most recent version. The State may have more current information. We make no guarantees or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of this information, or the information linked to. Please check the linked sources directly.