Texting and calling clients: TCPA basics

Is it marketing?

The TCPA treats informational messages and marketing differently. A message about a policy a client already holds, such as an appointment confirmation, is generally informational. A message encouraging someone to buy is marketing, which the rules call telemarketing. When a message does both, treat it as marketing.

Consent

• Informational calls and texts sent with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice to a mobile number need the person's prior express consent. The law doesn't require it to be written.
• Marketing calls and texts sent that way need prior express written consent under the FCC's rule (47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(2)): a signed agreement (an e-signature counts) that clearly authorizes you, shows the phone number, and says plainly that signing authorizes those calls and isn't a condition of any purchase.
• In February 2026 a federal appeals court held that the statute itself only requires prior express consent, oral or written (Bradford v. Sovereign Pest Control). That ruling binds courts only in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and Florida, Oklahoma and Maryland require written consent for automated sales calls by statute. Getting written consent everywhere is still the safe course.
• The FCC's "one-to-one" rule, which would have limited consent to one seller at a time, was struck down in January 2025 (Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC) and removed in August 2025. Consent must still clearly authorize you. If you buy leads, check that it does.
• Calls and texts a person dials or types by hand fall outside the autodialer rules, though what counts as an autodialer has been narrowed by the Supreme Court (Facebook v. Duguid, 2021). Do Not Call rules and quiet hours apply to sales calls either way.

Opt-outs

• Since April 11, 2025, people can revoke consent by any reasonable method, and you can't require one exclusive method (FCC 24-24).
• Replies of stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel or unsubscribe count automatically. Other wording counts if a reasonable person would read it as an opt-out.
• Honor it within 10 business days. You may send one confirmation text with no marketing in it, presumed fine if sent within five minutes.
• A broader "revoke all" rule, where one opt-out would stop all automated calls and texts from you, was delayed to January 31, 2027. The FCC scheduled a vote on September 30, 2026 on a rewrite that would change how opt-outs apply across informational and marketing messages (FCC draft; Greenberg Traurig summary).
• Virginia requires honoring a STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE reply for 10 years, since January 1, 2026 (Va. Code § 59.1-514).

Quiet hours and call limits

Federal law bars telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. at the called person's location. That definition excludes people who gave you permission and people you have an established business relationship with. Several states are stricter:

Sending marketing between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the client's time zone, and no more than three attempts a day, satisfies all of these.

Do Not Call

• Don't make telephone solicitations to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry unless you have the person's signed written agreement or a personal relationship with them.
• An established business relationship also allows calls: 18 months after a purchase or transaction, or 3 months after an inquiry or application. It ends as soon as the person asks you not to call. It only exempts you from the Do Not Call rules, not from the consent rules for automated or AI-voice marketing.
• Scrub your list against the Registry at least every 31 days and keep written procedures and an internal do-not-call list. That is the safe harbor if a mistake slips through.
• The Do Not Call rules have covered marketing texts to mobile numbers since March 2024. Courts are split on whether people can sue over texts under these rules: the Seventh Circuit said no in July 2026 (Troutman summary), and the Ninth Circuit treats a text as a call under the autodialer rules.

AI voices

• In February 2024 the FCC ruled that AI-generated voices are "artificial" voices under the TCPA (FCC 24-17). Outbound AI calls need the same consent as prerecorded calls: written consent for marketing, under the FCC's rule.
• The call must state the name of the business responsible at the start, and a marketing call must offer an automated way to opt out.
• The ruling covers AI that places calls. We found no FCC ruling applying these rules to an AI assistant answering calls people make to you.
• The FCC proposed AI disclosure rules in August 2024 (FCC 24-84). We found no final rule as of September 2026. Since the Supreme Court's 2025 decision in McLaughlin Chiropractic v. McKesson, courts are no longer bound by FCC interpretations in these lawsuits, which is why the rules above keep shifting.

Texting from a business number

• Texting people from a standard local number requires A2P 10DLC registration: your business (the brand) and what you text about (the campaign), including how people opt in and out. Your texting provider handles it through The Campaign Registry, and carriers block unregistered traffic (Twilio).
• Carriers enforce the CTIA Messaging Principles: get opt-in first and keep a record of it (date, method, the words shown, the number), send a confirmation with your program name, how to get help, how to opt out and how often you'll text, and honor STOP.
• An opt-in covers the purpose it was given for. Don't text rented or purchased lists.

State laws that let people sue

• Florida (FTSA, § 501.059): covers calls, texts and voicemail; automated sales calls need written consent; $500 per violation, tripled if willful. Since 2023, people must reply STOP and wait 15 days before suing over texts.
• Oklahoma: written consent for automated calls, with the hours and limits above, but licensed insurance agents are exempt.
• Maryland (since January 2024): written consent for automated calls, the hours and limits above, $500 per violation or actual damages.
• Texas (since September 2025): texts count as telephone solicitations, and consumers can sue under the state consumer-protection law. People licensed under the Insurance Code are exempt from the registration requirement (Kelley Drye).
• Virginia, Oregon and Connecticut now cover texts. Washington requires clear, affirmative consent before commercial texts (RCW 19.190).

A checklist

• Get written consent before marketing calls or texts, and keep the record: date, method, the exact wording and the number. Our Get Started form shows one way, with a separate, optional box for calls and texts.
• Keep informational messages and marketing separate.
• Honor STOP and other opt-outs right away. Ten business days is the limit, not the goal.
• Send marketing between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the client's time zone, no more than three attempts a day.
• Scrub against the National Do Not Call Registry at least every 31 days, and keep your own do-not-call list.
• Register your texting number for A2P 10DLC through your provider.
• If an AI or a vendor places calls for you, make sure it names your business at the start and offers an opt-out, and that you have the consent those calls need.