Judge Stays California's Anti-Junk Fax Law

By: E&P Staff A federal judge in Sacramento issued an order staying a California state law on unsolicited fax advertising that was strongly opposed by the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA).

In an alert to members Thursday afternoon, CNPA said the legislation, signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a little more than a week ago, will not go into effect Jan. 1.

CNPA and other business organizations opposed the law because it bans the sending of unsolicited adverting faxes even to existing customers. The federal Fax Prevention Act exempts unsolicited faxes sent to customers who already have a business relationship with the advertisers.

Litigation to prevent the law from taking effect was filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

During lobbying on the bill, CNPA argued that the existing federal law would preempt California's anti-junk fax law. CNPA said the federal court adopted that reasoning in issuing the stay. The court also said businesses were likely to suffer harm "because their right to engage in federally protected interstate communication via facsimile [would] have been impermissibly infringed," according to the CNPA account.