President Bush is expected to sign the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005. This legislation was necessary because in 2003 the Federal Communications Commission issued an order reversing its prior treatment of faxes sent to customers with whom the sender has an established business relationship.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 prohibits unsolicited fax advertisements without prior express invitation or permission, but the FCC in 1992 indicated that faxes from an entity with whom a recipient has an established business relationship were deemed to be invited or permitted. There is more to this issue. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce provided the Association of Washington Business (AWB) with a two-page memo from Piper Rudnick Gray Cary outlining what you must do to comply. For a copy of the memo, contact AWB’s Dick Walter at (360)-943-1600 or DickW@awb.org.