Text Message Marketing Compliance Basics

What the TCPA Covers for Text Marketing

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a federal law the FCC implements and enforces, restricts automated marketing communications, including text messages, sent to a consumer's wireless number. Courts and the FCC treat most automated marketing texts the same way they treat prerecorded or autodialed marketing calls for purposes of the consent and opt-out requirements, so a business building a texting program needs to treat these rules as seriously as it would a cold-calling campaign.

Get Prior Express Written Consent First

Before sending a marketing text, you generally need the recipient's prior express written consent, specific to your business and clearly disclosing that they're agreeing to receive marketing text messages. A past purchase, a website visit, or simply not objecting when you added someone to a list doesn't establish this kind of consent on its own. Document how and when consent was given, since you may need to show it later if a recipient disputes receiving your messages.

Accept Opt-Outs Through Any Reasonable Method

An FCC rule change effective April 11, 2025 significantly expanded how a recipient can opt out: businesses must now honor an opt-out request made through any reasonable method, not only a specific keyword reply like STOP. A recipient who emails your support team, leaves a voicemail, or replies with a different word that clearly conveys they want to stop has still revoked consent, and the request has to be honored rather than disregarded because it didn't use your expected keyword.

Process Opt-Outs Within 10 Business Days

Once a recipient opts out, by whatever reasonable method they used, you're required to stop sending them marketing texts within 10 business days. Build this into your texting platform's process rather than handling opt-outs manually on a case-by-case basis, since a delay past this window is itself a compliance problem separate from whatever consent issue might also exist.

Know What's Changing and What Isn't

A related FCC rule that would have required an opt-out from one type of message to apply broadly across all communications from a business, both marketing and informational messages, was delayed to January 31, 2027. Until that rule takes effect, confirm with current FCC guidance exactly how narrowly or broadly an opt-out request has to be applied across your different messaging programs.

Understand the Cost of Getting This Wrong

TCPA violations can carry statutory damages of $500 to $1,500 per text message, an amount that applies per message rather than per campaign. Because a single bulk send can include thousands of messages, a texting program built on weak consent records or a slow opt-out process carries outsized financial risk compared to the cost of building the compliance process correctly from the start.

Keep Records to Support Your Compliance

Keep a record of how and when each recipient consented, what disclosure they saw at the time, and a log of every opt-out request and when it was processed. These records are what demonstrate compliance if a recipient or regulator ever challenges whether a specific message was properly sent.

Texting and Email Marketing Are Governed by Different Laws

Text message marketing falls under the TCPA, enforced by the FCC, while email marketing falls under the CAN-SPAM Act, enforced by the FTC. The two laws have different consent and opt-out standards, so a compliance process built for one doesn't automatically satisfy the other if your business uses both channels.

State Laws Can Add Requirements

Some states have their own telemarketing or text-messaging statutes that add requirements beyond the federal TCPA, including additional disclosures or stricter consent rules. Check whether your state has its own law before assuming federal compliance is sufficient everywhere you send messages.

A Texting Platform Doesn't Automatically Make You Compliant

Using a reputable SMS marketing platform can help with consent capture and opt-out processing, but the underlying legal responsibility for proper consent and timely opt-out handling stays with your business. Confirm your platform's default settings actually match the TCPA's current requirements rather than assuming compliance is built in.

This Is Not Legal Advice

TCPA compliance involves fact-specific questions about how consent was obtained and documented, and the rules have changed more than once in recent years. Talk to an attorney familiar with telemarketing and TCPA compliance before launching or scaling a text marketing program, particularly if you're sending at high volume.