---
title: O.C.G.A. § 46-5-171.1. Written authorization required by customer prior to being charged for service initiated by a third party.
collection: code
id: 46-5-171.1
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 46-5-171.1 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/46-5-171.1
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/46-5-171.1.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/46-5-171.1/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t46-(v34)-2025-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=48adb3c4_0#page=641
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia
heading_path: PUBLIC UTILITIES AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION / TELEPHONE SERVICE / TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND COMPETITION DEVELOPMENT
extraction_warnings:
  - dehyphenation_unverified:pay-per-use
---

# O.C.G.A. § 46-5-171.1. Written authorization required by customer prior to being charged for service initiated by a third party.

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this Code section, no telecommunications company shall charge a customer for any service which is provided to the customer by a nonaffiliated third party until such third party has certified to the telecommunications company that the third party has received the customer’s written authorization for such charges. When a customer initiates a new type of such third-party service or changes the type or types of such third-party service received, the invoice for such new or changed services must state the charges for such services in a clear, conspicuous, separate, and distinct manner so as to ensure that the customer is aware of the new or changed charges. Any telecommunications company that charges a customer for a service which is provided to the customer by a nonaffiliated third party must provide to such customer the ability to block the nonaffiliated third-party service and any charges associated with such service.

(b) This Code section shall not apply to any transaction between a customer and that customer’s selected provider of basic local exchange, inter-LATA, or intra-LATA telecommunications services or initial requests to subscribe to such services; wireless services; requests for a change in a customer’s provider of local exchange service or a change in a customer’s primary interexchange inter-LATA or intra-LATA carrier; or customer initiated use of abbreviated dialing codes or other pay-peruse services.

## History

Code 1981, § 46-5-171.1, enacted by Ga. L. 1998, p. 1378, § 1; Ga. L. 1999, p. 877, § 1; Ga. L. 2009, p. 318, § 1/HB 302.

## Code Commission Notes

Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1999, “customer initiated” was substituted for “customer-initiated” in subsection (b).

## Editor's Notes

Ga. L. 1998, p. 1378, § 2, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “This Act shall become effective on July 1, 1998, and shall apply to services which are initiated or changed after that date.”