Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 1282 amends the Business & Commerce Code to regulate commercial electronic mail. The bill prohibits a person from intentionally transmitting a commercial electronic message that falsifies the routing information of the message, contains deceptive or misleading information in the subject line, or uses the domain name of another person without that person's consent. The bill requires unsolicited electronic mail messages to include certain words or letters in the subject line, depending on the message content, and to provide a return address to which the recipient could, at no cost, request removal from the sender's electronic mail list. The penalty for failing to properly identify a sexually explicit or obscene electronic mail transmission is a Class B misdemeanor; all other violations are subject to a civil penalty of $10 for each unlawful message or $25,000 for each day an unlawful message is received, whichever is less. The attorney general or local prosecuting attorney is authorized to bring suit to recover the civil penalty and to seek an injunction to prevent or restrain a violation. The bill also establishes that a message sent in violation of this statute constitutes a deceptive trade practice and authorizes a person injured by a violation to sue for damages, including lost profits, or, in lieu of actual damages, the amount of the civil penalty. An electronic mail service provider is also authorized to sue for the amount of the civil penalty. The bill requires a person who sues under the civil liability provisions to give notice of the action to the attorney general within certain time frames and makes failure to do so subject to a civil penalty of up to $200. The attorney general is authorized to intervene in the action by filing a notice of intervention with the court, and the court is authorized to conduct legal proceedings in such a manner as to protect the secrecy and security of computers, networks, data, programs, and software. The bill authorizes an electronic mail provider to block the receipt or transmission of prohibited messages and establishes that a provider or telecommunications utility is not in violation if the provider or utility is solely an intermediary between a sender and a receiver. A sender is not in violation if the sender contracts in good faith with an electronic mail service provider.