President Bush signed into law the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005 on Saturday, July 9, 2005.The bill maintains the “established business relationship” (EBR) exception that allows associations and companies to send unsolicited commercial faxes to their members and clients.The fax bill also requires unsolicited commercial faxes to include an opt-out provision on the first page of the fax; requires that fax numbers be obtained either directly from the recipient or from a public source to which the recipient gave the number for publication; and “grandfathers” fax numbers in the possession of the sender at the time of enactment. The EBR exception was scheduled to be eliminated under a rule adopted by the FCC, which was to take effect July 1, 2005.Had this rule gone into effect, businesses would have been prohibited from sending any fax advertising without a prior signed, written authorization from the recipient. Even with these changes included in the law, however, severe restrictions remain on the use of fax advertisements.Among other requirements, all fax advertisements must contain a notice advising the recipient of how to “opt out” from receiving any further faxes.All fax advertisements are required to set forth on the first page of the transmission, or the top or bottom of each transmitted page, the date and time the message is sent, the identification of the sender, and the sender’s telephone or fax numbers.Retailers who are considering sending fax solicitations should make sure they are in compliance with all of the FCC’s requirements. For additional information regarding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the restrictions on sending unsolicited advertisements to a fax machine, visit the NADA Web site at www.nada.org; click on Member Services, then Government Affairs, then Regulation.