The Legislature of Alabama finds all of the following:

(1) The use of the telephone to market goods and services to the home is pervasive now due to the increased use of cost-effective telemarketing techniques.

(2) Over 30,000 businesses actively telemarket goods and services to business and residential customers.

(3) Everyday, over 300,000 solicitors place calls to more than 18 million Americans, including citizens of this state.

(4) Telemarketing, however, can be an intrusive and relentless invasion of the privacy and peacefulness of the home.

(5) Many citizens of this state are outraged over the proliferation of nuisance calls to their homes from telemarketers.

(6) Privacy rights and commercial freedom of speech of individuals can be balanced in a way that accommodates both the privacy of individuals and legitimate telemarketing practices.

(7) It is in the public interest to establish a mechanism under which the individual citizens of this state can decide whether or not to receive telemarketing calls in their homes.

A court of this state may exercise personal jurisdiction over any nonresident or his or her executor or administrator as to an action or proceeding authorized by this chapter.

The remedies, duties, prohibitions, and penalties of Sections 8-19C-2 to 8-19C-10, inclusive, of this chapter shall not be exclusive and shall be in addition to all other causes of action, remedies, and penalties provided by law.

No provider of telephone caller identification service, local exchange telephone company, or long distance telephone company may be held liable for violations of this chapter committed by other persons or entities.

(a) No person or entity may make or cause to be made any telephone solicitation to the telephone line of any residential subscriber in this state who has given notice to the commission of his or her objection to receiving telephone solicitations.

(b)(1) The commission shall establish and operate a database to compile a list of telephone numbers of residential subscribers who object to receiving telephone solicitations. The commission shall have the database in operation before July 1, 2000.

(2) The database may be operated by the commission or by another entity under contract with the commission.

(3) Before July 1, 2000, the commission shall promulgate regulations which shall include all of the following:

a. A requirement that each local exchange company and each competing local exchange carrier shall inform on an annual basis its residential subscribers of the opportunity to provide notification to the commission or its contractor that the subscriber objects to receiving telephone solicitations.

The information shall be disseminated at the option of the carrier by television, radio, or newspaper advertisements; written correspondence; bill insert or messages; telephone book subscription forms; or any other method not expressly prohibited.

b. Methods by which each residential subscriber may give notice to the commission or its contractor of his or her objection to receiving solicitations or revocation of the notice.

c. Methods by which a notice of objection becomes effective and the effect of a change of telephone number on the notice.

d. Methods by which objections and revocations are collected and added to the database.

e. Methods by which a person or entity desiring to make telephone solicitations may obtain access to the database as required to avoid calling the telephone numbers of residential subscribers included in the database.

f. All other matters relating to the database that the commission deems necessary.

(4) If, pursuant to 47 U.S.C. Section 227(c)(3), the Federal Communications Commission establishes a single national database of telephone numbers of subscribers who object to receiving telephone solicitations, the commission shall include the part of the single national database that relates to Alabama in the database established under this section.

(a) The commission shall have the authority to charge a residential subscriber a fee every two years payable to the commission for each notice for inclusion on the database established pursuant to this chapter. The commission shall also have the authority to charge a person or entity desiring to make telephone solicitations a fee per year payable to the commission for access to, or for paper or electronic copies of the database established pursuant to this chapter. Any fee established by the commission shall be subject to the approval of the Legislative Council.

(b) The commission shall update its 'no sales solicitation calls' listing upon receipt of initial consumer subscriptions or renewals and provide this listing for a fee, pursuant to subsection (a).

(c) All fees collected under this chapter shall be deposited into a separate fund in the State Treasury to be expended by the commission for the implementation and administration of this chapter. At the end of each fiscal year, unexpended monies remaining in the fund shall not revert to any other fund of the state, but shall remain available for appropriation. The Legislature shall annually appropriate from the fund the amount necessary for the administration of this chapter to the commission subject to the provisions, terms, conditions, and limitations of the Budget and Financial Control Act, Sections 41-4-80 et seq., Sections 41-19-1 et seq., and any other provisions of this chapter.

Information contained in the database established pursuant to this chapter may be used only for the purpose of compliance with this chapter or in a proceeding or action pursuant to Section 8-19C-6 or 8-19C-7. The information shall not be subject to public inspection or disclosure.

(a) Any person or entity who makes a telephone solicitation to the telephone line of a residential subscriber in this state shall identify himself or herself as provided under Section 8-19A-12.

(b) No person or entity who makes a telephone solicitation to the telephone line of a residential subscriber in this state may knowingly utilize a method to block or otherwise circumvent the use of a caller identification service by the subscriber.

The commission may commence proceedings in the circuit court in the county relating to a knowing violation or threatened knowing violation of subsection (a) of Section 8-19C-2 or Section 8-19C-5. Proceedings which the commission may commence, include, without limitation, issuance of a cease and desist order or issuance of an order imposing a civil penalty up to a maximum of two thousand dollars ($2,000) for each violation. The proceedings shall be brought in the name of the state. The commission may issue investigative demands, issue subpoenas, administer oaths, and conduct hearings in the course of investigating a violation of subsection (a) of Section 8-19C-2 or Section 8-19C-5.

A person who has received more than one telephone solicitation within a 12-month period by or on behalf of the same person or entity in violation of subsection (a) of Section 8-19C-2 or Section 8-19C-5 may bring an action to enjoin the violation; bring an action to recover for actual monetary loss from the knowing violation or to receive up to two thousand dollars ($2,000) in damages for each knowing violation, whichever is greater; or bring both actions.

It shall be a defense in any action or proceeding brought under Section 8-19C-6 or Section 8-19C-7 that the defendant has established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures to effectively prevent telephone solicitations in violation of this chapter.

No action or proceeding may be brought under Section 8-19C-6 or Section 8-19C-7 more than two years after the person bringing the action knew or should have known of the occurrence of the alleged violation; or more than two years after the termination of any proceeding or action by the state, whichever is later.