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90_HB3541
815 ILCS 505/2II new
Amends the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business
Practices Act. Provides that, with specified exceptions, an
Internet service provider shall give a customer in this State
a credit or refund if the Internet service provider's service
to the customer is interrupted for a continuous period of
more than 4 hours. Provides that an Internet service provider
who violates these provisions commits an unlawful practice
within the meaning of the Act.
LRB9011522WHsb
LRB9011522WHsb
1 AN ACT to amend the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business
2 Practices Act by adding Section 2II.
3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
4 represented in the General Assembly:
5 Section 5. The Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business
6 Practices Act is amended by adding Section 2II as follows:
7 (815 ILCS 505/2II new)
8 Sec. 2II. Internet service providers.
9 (a) Except as otherwise provided in subsections (b),
10 (c), and (d), an Internet service provider shall give a
11 customer in this State a credit or refund if the Internet
12 service provider's service to the customer is interrupted for
13 a continuous period of more than 4 hours. The amount of the
14 credit or refund shall be determined by dividing the number
15 of hours of the interruption (rounded up to the nearest whole
16 hour) by the number of hours in the billing period, and
17 multiplying the quotient by the amount charged by the
18 Internet service provider for its service to the customer
19 during the billing period.
20 (b) No credit or refund shall be payable if:
21 (1) the Internet service provider notifies the
22 customer, not later than 5 days after the customer opens
23 his or her account (or, in the case of a current
24 customer, not later than 30 days after the effective date
25 of this amendatory Act of 1998), of the days and times,
26 not to exceed 6 hours per week, during which scheduled
27 maintenance or testing may make the services of the
28 Internet service provider unavailable; and
29 (2) scheduled maintenance or testing is confined to
30 the time periods specified in accordance with subdivision
31 (1).
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1 (c) No credit or refund is payable to a customer if the
2 Internet service provider's service is available but the
3 customer is unable to use the Internet service provider's
4 service because of interruption or degradation of the
5 customer's connection with the customer's local telephone
6 company or because of the customer's computer hardware or
7 software or of other equipment used by the customer to
8 establish a connection with the Internet service provider.
9 (d) No credit or refund is payable to a customer if the
10 customer pays for the Internet service provider's service
11 based upon the number of hours, minutes, or seconds the
12 customer is actually connected to the Internet service
13 provider.
14 (e) For purposes of this Section, an Internet service
15 provider's service to the customer shall be considered to be
16 interrupted for a given period of time if any component of
17 the service made available to the customer by the Internet
18 service provider (including, but not limited to, access to
19 electronic mail, the World Wide Web, newsgroups, and file
20 transfers) is unavailable to the customer during that period
21 of time, even if other components of the service remain
22 available.
23 (f) If an Internet service provider has knowledge of any
24 interruption of its service to one or more customers in this
25 State, it shall provide any refund or credit required by this
26 Section to each of its affected customers in this State
27 regardless of whether those customers request a refund or
28 credit. It shall notify each affected customer of any refund
29 or credit provided to the customer.
30 (g) An Internet service provider who violates this
31 Section commits an unlawful practice within the meaning of
32 this Act.
33 (h) As used in this Section, "Internet service provider"
34 means a person (regardless of whether the person is located
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1 within or outside of Illinois) who provides access
2 (regardless of whether the access is through an online
3 service that provides other services that are not part of the
4 Internet) to customers in this State on an ongoing basis to
5 Internet electronic mail, the World Wide Web, Internet file
6 transfers, or any other information or data that may be sent
7 or received through the Internet.