Insurers Applaud Stay of ‘Do-Not-Fax‘ Rule

A decision by the Federal Communications Commission to delay enforcement of a rule prohibiting the sending of unsolicited faxes that may be deemed advertisements was greeted with relief by groups representing agents and insurers. The rule, which would have required signed written permission from recipients before such a fax could be sent, had been scheduled to go into effect on August 25, 2003. But it was stayed, until January 1, 2005, after an uproar by businesses and their trade associations, which objected to the intrusion on their ability to send faxes to clients with which they have an "existing business relationship." The original FCC do-not-fax rule issued in 1992 contained an exception permitting unsolicited advertising faxes to recipients with which the seller does business on a regular basis.