TCPA and Telemarketing Sales Rule basics

Two federal rule sets govern outbound calls in the United States. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is a 1991 statute that the FCC implements in 47 CFR 64.1200, and the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) is the FTC's rule at 16 CFR Part 310. They overlap, they define their terms differently, and a sales calling program usually has to satisfy both, along with the laws of every state it calls into. This Impact Dialing guide covers what each one reaches and where nonprofits and political campaigns fit.

What the TCPA covers

The TCPA's rules fall into two groups. The robocall rules restrict calls made with an autodialer or with an artificial or prerecorded voice, and they apply to anyone, including nonprofits and campaigns, with exemptions that vary by caller. The telephone solicitation rules set calling hours and do-not-call requirements, and they apply only to calls that encourage someone to buy, rent, or invest in something. Text messages count as calls under both.

The statute also lets people sue. A person can recover $500 for each violation of the robocall rules, or up to three times that if a court finds the violation willful or knowing (47 U.S.C. 227(b)(3)), and someone who gets more than one call in 12 months that breaks the do-not-call rules has a similar right of action (47 U.S.C. 227(c)(5)). Because damages are counted per call, a campaign-sized mistake can turn into a large class action.

Consent for robocalls and robotexts

The consent a robocall needs depends on where it goes and what it says.

• Autodialed or prerecorded calls to a cell phone need the called person's prior express consent, unless they're for an emergency or fall under a narrow exemption (47 CFR 64.1200(a)(1)).
• If the call is telemarketing, the bar rises to prior express written consent (64.1200(a)(2)). That's a signed agreement, electronic signatures included, that authorizes the seller to deliver telemarketing calls using an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice to a specific number, with a clear disclosure that signing isn't a condition of buying anything (64.1200(f)(9)).
• Prerecorded telemarketing calls to residential landlines also need prior express written consent (64.1200(a)(3)).
• Tax-exempt nonprofits need only prior express consent for robocalls to cell phones, and they may place up to three prerecorded calls to a residential line in any 30-day period without consent, as long as they honor opt-out requests (64.1200(a)(2) and (a)(3)(iv)).

Voices generated by AI count as artificial voices. The FCC said so in a February 2024 declaratory ruling (FCC 24-17), so an AI voice agent placing calls needs the same consent a prerecorded message does.

The one-to-one consent rule

In December 2023 the FCC adopted a rule that would have required prior express written consent to name a single seller and to cover only calls "logically and topically associated" with the interaction where the consumer gave it. The Eleventh Circuit vacated that rule in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC on January 24, 2025, days before it was due to take effect, and the FCC removed it from its rules in an order published in the Federal Register on August 29, 2025 (90 FR 42137). The definition of prior express written consent at 64.1200(f)(9) is back to its earlier text, which still requires the agreement to clearly authorize the seller that's calling.

Autodialers after Facebook v. Duguid

The TCPA defines an autodialer as equipment with the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator, and to dial them. In Facebook v. Duguid (2021), the Supreme Court held that a device qualifies only if it uses such a generator to store or to produce the numbers, which leaves out most dialers that call a list of specific numbers. The prerecorded and artificial voice rules don't depend on that definition, and some state laws, Florida's among them, reach automated dialing more broadly. Predictive, power, and preview dialing covers what this means for each dialing mode.

Revoking consent

Since April 11, 2025, a person can revoke consent to robocalls and robotexts by any reasonable means, and the caller has to honor the revocation within 10 business days (64.1200(a)(10)). A reply of "stop," "quit," "end," "revoke," "opt out," "cancel," or "unsubscribe" to a text counts automatically, as does using the opt-out on a call or a website or phone number the caller designates for opt-outs. The caller may send one text confirming the opt-out, with nothing else in it (64.1200(a)(12)).

The FCC's 2024 order also said a revocation should stop all of a caller's robocalls and robotexts, and that part was delayed twice, most recently to January 31, 2027. On September 30, 2026, the FCC adopted an order that replaces it. According to the FCC's summary, callers will be able to treat an opt-out from one category of informational robocalls as covering only that category, and to designate an exclusive way to opt out, while an opt-out from telemarketing still stops all of that caller's telemarketing robocalls. Those changes take effect 30 days after the order is published in the Federal Register, which hadn't happened when this guide was checked.

What the Telemarketing Sales Rule covers

The TSR applies to telemarketing, which the FTC defines as a plan, program, or campaign to induce the purchase of goods or services or a charitable contribution by telephone, involving more than one interstate call (16 CFR 310.2). These are its main requirements for outbound calls.

• Prompt disclosures. A sales call has to disclose the seller's identity, that the purpose is to sell, and what's being sold, and a charitable call has to name the charity and say the purpose is to ask for a contribution (310.4(d) and (e)). The guide to writing outbound call scripts shows how that fits into an opening.
• Do-not-call. Sellers and telemarketers can't call numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry without an established business relationship or the person's signed written agreement, and they have to honor company-specific requests (310.4(b)(1)(iii)). Calling hours and do-not-call lists covers both.
• Abandoned calls. Calls answered by a person have to reach a sales representative within two seconds of the greeting, with a safe harbor for programs that keep abandonment at or under 3 percent and meet the other conditions (310.4(b)(1)(iv) and (b)(4)). Abandonment rate and the 3 percent rule explains the math.
• Calling hours. No calls to a person's home before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in their local time without their consent (310.4(c)).
• Caller ID. Telemarketers have to transmit a telephone number, and a name when their carrier makes one available. They may substitute the seller's name and a customer service number that's answered during regular business hours (310.4(a)(8)).
• Prerecorded sales calls. These need the recipient's express written agreement to receive them (310.4(b)(1)(v)).
• Records. Sellers and telemarketers keep records for five years, including each substantially different script and prerecorded message and, since the 2024 amendments, a record of each telemarketing call with its numbers, time, duration, script, and disposition (310.5).

The TSR mostly exempts calls between a telemarketer and a business, though its bans on misrepresentation still apply to business-to-business calls (310.6(b)(7)). The FTC's guide, Complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule, goes through each requirement with examples.

Where nonprofits and political campaigns fit

Political calls aren't telemarketing or telephone solicitations under either rule set, so the TSR, the National Do Not Call Registry, and the FCC's federal calling-hours rule don't apply to them. The TCPA's robocall rules do. Autodialed or prerecorded political calls and texts to cell phones need prior express consent, and prerecorded political calls to residential landlines are limited to three in any 30-day period without consent and have to carry the identification and opt-out the FCC requires. Phone banking for political campaigns covers those rules in practice.

Tax-exempt nonprofits get similar treatment from the FCC. Their calls aren't telephone solicitations, so the registry doesn't apply, and the FCC's abandonment rule excludes them (64.1200(a)(7)(iv)), though the robocall consent rules still apply. Under the TSR, a charity calling on its own behalf isn't covered, but a for-profit telemarketer calling for a charity is. That telemarketer has to make the charitable disclosures, honor the charity's own do-not-call list, and follow the TSR's abandonment and calling-hours rules, while charitable calls stay exempt from the national registry (310.6(a)).

State laws

States regulate telemarketing too, and some go further than federal law with their own do-not-call lists, registration requirements for telemarketers, tighter calling hours, or broader definitions of automated dialing. Florida's law is one example. It limits commercial telephone solicitation calls to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the called person's time zone, caps them at three calls in 24 hours on the same subject (Fla. Stat. 501.616(6)), and requires prior express written consent for sales calls that use an automated system to select and dial numbers (Fla. Stat. 501.059(8)). Check the rules for every state on your list, keyed to where the called person is.