OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
S.B. 54 Final Analysis
134th General Assembly
Click here for S.B. 54’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Passed by the General Assembly
Primary Sponsor: Sen. Gavarone
Effective date: March 2, 2022
Effective Date:
Ashley F. Dean, Attorney
SUMMARY
 Prohibits a person, entity, or merchant from engaging in any act or practice in violation
of any provision of a specified federal act or rule addressing telemarketing or consumer
fraud.
 Prohibits a person from providing substantial assistance or support to any person,
entity, merchant, seller, or telemarketer when that person knows or consciously avoids
knowing that the other person, entity, merchant, seller, or telemarketer is engaged in
any act or practice that violates any provision of the federal act or rule.
 Allows the Attorney General to investigate alleged violations of those prohibitions and
allows for civil penalties for those violations.
 Requires the Attorney General to deposit civil penalties to the credit of the
Telemarketing Fraud Enforcement Fund and specifies how those funds must be utilized.
 Specifies that the Attorney General cannot bring an action for damages or a civil penalty
more than five years after a violation occurs.
 Designates a violation of the prohibitions that involve a consumer transaction as an
unfair or deceptive act or practice.
 Allows the Attorney General to prosecute a case involving the unauthorized use of
property, unauthorized use of computer, cable, or telecommunication property, or
telecommunications fraud if certain conditions are met.
 Prohibits a person, having devised a scheme to defraud, from knowingly disseminating,
transmitting, or causing to be disseminated or transmitted by means of a voice over
internet protocol service any writing, data, sign, signal, picture, sound, or image with
purpose to execute or otherwise further the scheme to defraud.
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 Generally prohibits a person, with intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain
anything of value, from knowingly causing, directly or indirectly, any caller identification
service to transmit or display misleading or inaccurate caller identification information
in connection with any telecommunication service or voice over internet protocol
service.
 Specifies that if the victim of telecommunications fraud is an elderly person, disabled
adult, active duty service member, or spouse of an active duty service member,
telecommunications fraud is a fourth degree felony.
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Telemarketer engaging in any act or practice in violation of
federal law
Prohibitions
The act modifies the prohibition against a seller or telemarketer engaging in any act or
practice in violation of any provision of a federal act or rule by also including a person, entity, or
merchant within that prohibition.1 Existing law, unchanged by the act, defines a “federal act or
rule” as the “Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act,” the “Telephone
Consumer Protection Act of 1991,” any amendment or reenactment of either of those acts, any
rule adopted or issued pursuant to either of those acts, or any amendment of that rule.2
The act also prohibits a person from providing substantial assistance or support to any
person, entity, merchant, seller, or telemarketer when that person knows or consciously avoids
knowing that the other person, entity, merchant, seller, or telemarketer is engaged in any act
or practice that violates any provision of a federal act or rule. “Substantial assistance or
support” does not include providing a voice service to a third party by a voice service provider if
any of the following is true:
 The voice service provider is not designated as a noncooperative carrier by the
consortium registered with the Federal Communications Commission pursuant to
47 C.F.R. 64.1203.
 The network of the voice service provider does not originate the voice service or text
messaging service.
 The network of the voice service provider is not the first domestic provider handling the
voice service or text messaging service that originates outside of the United States. 3
1 R.C. 109.87(B)(1).
2 R.C. 109.87(A)(2)(a).
3 R.C. 109.87(B)(2).
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Investigation of violations
The act modifies law that authorizes the Attorney General to investigate alleged
violations of the federal acts or rules and, for the purposes of investigation, to administer oaths,
subpoena witnesses, adduce evidence, and require the production of any relevant matter by
allowing the Attorney General to investigate alleged violations of the prohibitions described
above. The act prohibits the Attorney General, in conducting an investigation, from publicly
disclosing the identity of persons, entities, merchants, sellers, or telemarketers investigated for
the facts developed in the investigation, unless this information has become a matter of public
record in enforcement proceedings or if those being investigated have consented in writing to
public disclosure. The Attorney General, in conducting an investigation, must cooperate with
state and local officials of other states and officials of the federal government in the
administration of comparable laws and regulations.4
Penalties
The act sets at $500 the civil penalty that the court, on the motion of the Attorney
General or on the court’s own motion, may impose for each violation of the offenses described
above or of the federal act or rule that is the subject of the action. However, if the court finds
the defendant willfully or knowingly committed the violation, the court may impose a civil
penalty of $1,500 for each violation. Prior law tied the award of damages or civil penalty to
amounts allowable in the applicable federal act or rule.5
The Attorney General must deposit the civil penalties to the credit of the Telemarketing
Fraud Enforcement Fund (rather than the Telephone Solicitation Protection Fund under prior
law), to be used to pay the costs of the Attorney General’s office in investigating any violation
of, or in enforcing, any federal act or rule or the offenses described above, or for any other
purpose set forth in the law establishing the fund.6
Period of limitation
Under the act, the Attorney General cannot bring an action for damages or a civil
penalty more than five years after the occurrence of the violation.7
Unfair or deceptive act or practice
Under the act, a violation of the offenses described above that involves a consumer
transaction is considered an unfair or deceptive act or practice. All powers and remedies
4 R.C. 109.87(C) to (F).
5 R.C. 109.87(D)(2).
6 R.C. 109.87(F). See R.C. 4719.17, not in the act.
7 R.C. 109.87(D)(5).
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available to the Attorney General to enforce the Consumer Sales Practices Act are available to
the Attorney General to enforce the provisions described above.8
Definitions
The act defines the following terms for the purposes of the provisions described above:9
 “Text message” means a message consisting of text, images, sounds, or other
information that is transmitted to or from a device that is identified as the receiving or
transmitting device by means of a ten-digit telephone number or N-1-1 service code and
includes a short message service and a multimedia message service. “Text message”
does not include a real-time, two-way voice or video communication or a message sent
over an internet protocol-enabled messaging service to another user of the same
messaging service, except a message described in the preceding sentence.
 “Text messaging service” means a service that enables the transmission or receipt of a
text message, including a service provided as part of or in connection with a voice
service.
 “Voice service provider” means any entity originating, carrying, or terminating voice
calls through time-division multiplexing, voice over internet protocol, including
interconnected or one-way voice over internet protocol, or commercial mobile radio
service.
 “Voice service” means any service that is interconnected with the public switched
telephone network, directly or as an intermediary, and that furnishes voice
communications to an end user using resources from the North American Numbering
Plan or any successor to the North American Numbering Plan adopted by the FCC under
the Communications Act of 1934, and includes both of the following:
 A transmission from a telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to a
telephone facsimile machine.
 Without limitation, any service that enables real-time, two-way voice
communications, including any service that requires internet protocol- compatible
customer premises equipment out-bound calling, whether or not the service is
one-way or two-way voice over internet protocol.
Attorney General investigating telecommunications and
telemarketing fraud
Continuing law allows the Attorney General, if the Attorney General has reasonable
cause to believe that a person or enterprise has engaged in, is engaging in, or is preparing to
engage in the unauthorized use of property, unauthorized use of computer, cable, or
8 R.C. 109.87(G).
9 R.C. 109.87(A)(2).
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telecommunication property, or telecommunications fraud, to investigate the alleged violation,
including issuing subpoenas and subpoenas duces tecum and compelling the attendance of
witnesses and the production of relevant records and papers.10 Under the act, in order to
initiate a criminal proceeding related to the unauthorized use of property, unauthorized use of
computer, cable, or telecommunication property, or telecommunications fraud, the Attorney
General must first present in writing any evidence of a violation to the prosecuting attorney of a
county in which the action may be brought. If within 45 days the prosecuting attorney has not
presented the case to a grand jury, the Attorney General may prosecute the case with all of the
rights, privileges, and powers conferred by law on a prosecuting attorney, including the power
to appear before a grand jury, to interrogate witnesses before a grand jury, and to handle a
case that comes out of a grand jury to its procedural conclusion, including an indictment, plea,
trial, sentencing, diversion, and appeal. These powers of the Attorney General are in addition to
any other applicable powers of the Attorney General.11
Telecommunications fraud
Prohibitions
The act modifies the existing offense of telecommunications fraud by prohibiting a
person, having devised a scheme to defraud, from knowingly disseminating, transmitting, or
causing to be disseminated or transmitted by means of a voice over internet protocol service
any writing, data, sign, signal, picture, sound, or image with purpose to execute or otherwise
further the scheme to defraud.12 “Voice over internet protocol service” means a service that
enables real-time, two-way, voice communications that originate or terminate from the user’s
location using internet protocol or a successor protocol, including, but not limited to, any such
service that permits an end user to receive calls from and terminate calls to the public switched
network.13
The act also adds to the offense of telecommunications fraud by prohibiting a person,
with intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value, from knowingly
causing, directly or indirectly, any caller identification service to transmit or display misleading
or inaccurate caller identification information in connection with any telecommunication
service or voice over internet protocol service. The prohibitions against telecommunications
fraud do not apply to any of the following:14
 A person who uses a telephone number that is identified as “unknown” or “blocked” or
who leaves a message and includes the person’s true identity;
10 R.C. 109.88(A) and (B).
11 R.C. 109.88(D).
12 R.C. 2913.05(A).
13 R.C. 2913.05(F) (cross reference to R.C. 4927.01(A)(17)).
14 R.C. 2913.05(B) and (C).
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 Any lawfully authorized investigative, protective, or intelligence activity of a United
States law enforcement agency or a state, county, or political subdivision law
enforcement agency;
 Any activity engaged in pursuant to a court order that specifically authorizes the use of
caller identification manipulation.
Penalty
The penalty generally for telecommunications fraud is a fifth degree felony. The act
specifies that if the victim of telecommunications fraud is an elderly person, disabled adult,
active duty service member, or spouse of an active duty service member, telecommunications
fraud is a fourth degree felony.15
Technical changes
The act makes several cross reference and other conforming changes.16
HISTORY
Action Date
Introduced 02-09-21
Reported, S. Judiciary 04-06-21
Passed Senate (31-1) 05-26-21
Reported, H. Criminal Justice 10-27-21
Passed House (85-2) 11-17-21
21-SB54-134/ts
15 R.C. 2913.05(E).
16 R.C. 109.87 and 2913.05.
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Statutes affected:
As Introduced: 109.87, 109.88, 2913.05, U.S, C.F, 64.1203, 4719.17
As Reported By Senate Committee: 109.87, 109.88, 2913.05, U.S, C.F, 64.1203, 4719.17
As Passed By Senate: 109.87, 109.88, 2913.05, U.S, C.F, 64.1203, 4719.17
As Reported By House Committee: 109.87, 109.88, 2913.05, U.S, C.F, 64.1203, 4719.17
As Passed By House: 109.87, 109.88, 2913.05, U.S, C.F, 64.1203, 4719.17
As Enrolled: 109.87, 109.88, 2913.05