Telemarketing Compliance for Small Businesses

Two Federal Rules, Not One

Small businesses that call or text customers for marketing purposes are generally subject to two separate federal frameworks that overlap but don't perfectly match. The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule regulates the content and timing of telemarketing calls and enforces the National Do Not Call Registry. The FCC's Telephone Consumer Protection Act separately regulates the method of contact, particularly autodialed calls and texts and prerecorded messages, and creates a private right of action that lets individual consumers sue. A business can be fully compliant with one and still violate the other, so treat them as two separate checklists rather than one combined rule.

The National Do Not Call Registry

Before telemarketing to a residential number, a business generally has to check that number against the National Do Not Call Registry and avoid calling numbers listed on it, with limited exceptions such as an existing business relationship with that specific consumer. Businesses that telemarket are required to pay to access the registry, with a tiered annual fee structure based on how many area codes' worth of numbers they download, according to the FTC. Separate from the national registry, if a specific consumer asks your business directly not to call them again, you have to maintain your own company-specific do-not-call list and honor that request regardless of what the national registry shows.

Calling Hours

The Telemarketing Sales Rule restricts telemarketing calls to between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m., measured in the recipient's time zone, not the caller's. A business calling across time zones needs to track each number's local time, not call based on its own office hours.

Required Disclosures Before Payment

Before a consumer pays for anything, the rule requires clearly disclosing who's calling and the purpose of the call, the total cost and quantity of any goods or services offered, any material restrictions or conditions, and the refund or cancellation policy if one is mentioned. These disclosures have to be clear and conspicuous, not buried quickly at the end of a fast-paced pitch.

Prerecorded Messages and Autodialed Calls Need Consent First

Separately from the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the TCPA generally requires prior express written consent before placing a prerecorded telemarketing call or an autodialed marketing call or text to a cell phone. This is a meaningfully different standard from an opt-out approach: the consent has to exist before you place the call, not just an opportunity to decline after the fact. Any prerecorded message also has to include an automated, interactive opt-out mechanism for the recipient.

What a Violation Can Cost

The TCPA allows a consumer to recover $500 per violating call or text, which a court can increase up to $1,500 per violation if the business is shown to have acted knowingly or willfully. Because there's no cap on the number of violations and the TCPA permits class actions, a calling or texting campaign that violates the law at scale can create liability far beyond what any individual call would suggest, independent of any separate FTC or FCC enforcement action.

Building Compliance Into Your Calling Process

A practical compliance approach scrubs your call list against the current National Do Not Call Registry and your own internal do-not-call list before every campaign, tracks each number's local time zone, scripts the required disclosures into your calling process rather than leaving them to each caller's discretion, and confirms you have the right kind of consent on file before using autodialing or prerecorded messages at all.

State Telemarketing Laws Can Add Requirements

Several states have their own telemarketing or robocall statutes that can be stricter than the federal baseline. Check whether your state has additional requirements before assuming federal compliance is the whole picture, particularly if you call consumers in multiple states.

B2B Calls Have Some, But Not Complete, Exceptions

Certain Telemarketing Sales Rule provisions have exceptions for business-to-business calls, but the exceptions aren't total, and the TCPA's consent requirements for autodialed calls to cell phones generally apply regardless of whether the call is framed as B2B. Don't assume a business number removes the restrictions entirely.

Keep Consent Records, Not Just a Policy

Because TCPA liability often comes down to whether valid consent existed for a specific call, keeping a dated, specific record of when and how a customer consented is more useful in a dispute than a general company policy stating that you only call consenting customers.

This Is Not Legal Advice

Whether a specific calling or texting practice complies with the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the TCPA depends on technical details, including what equipment you use to dial and what you can prove about consent. Talk to an attorney experienced in telemarketing and TCPA compliance before launching a calling or texting campaign at scale.