State Robocall and Telemarketing Laws: A 50-State Guide

How to read this guide

Federal law sets the floor. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) applies in every state and allows $500 per violation, or up to $1,500 if the violation was willful or knowing. It also says it does not preempt state laws that impose stricter rules on autodialers, prerecorded voices, and telephone solicitations (47 U.S.C. 227(f)(1)). So state laws stack on top of the federal one.

The table below answers three questions for every state and D.C.:

• Statute: the main state telemarketing or robocall law we verified. “Federal rules only” means we found no notable state statute.
• Own do-not-call list: “Yes” means the state still runs a separate sign-up. “Merged with national” means the state list was folded into, or legally adopts, the National Do Not Call Registry. “No” means the state has no list of its own.
• Private lawsuit allowed: whether that state statute lets a consumer sue. “Buyers only” means only someone who bought something through the call can sue. “Unclear” means the only route is the state’s general consumer fraud law, which usually requires a money loss.

States with their own page on this site are linked. Those pages cover calling hours, consent rules, damages, and how to register and complain.

Robocall and telemarketing laws by state

We checked each entry against the state’s statute or an official agency page in September 2026. “Not verified” marks the one entry we could not confirm. Laws change; the state pages carry the details and dates.

States with the strongest private claims

A handful of states wrote their own version of the TCPA, sometimes called a mini-TCPA, with fixed damages you can sue for without proving a money loss:

• Florida and Oklahoma require signed written consent for automated sales calls and texts, limit calls to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and cap them at three per day per subject. Both allow $500 per violation, up to three times that if willful.
• Maryland added the same kind of rules in its Stop the Spam Calls Act and separately lets consumers collect $500 per call that breaks federal telemarketing rules, plus attorney fees.
• Washington bans recorded sales calls and allows at least $1,000 per violation.
• Virginia and North Carolina use a $500, then $1,000, then $5,000 scale for repeat violations.
• South Carolina allows $1,000 per violation, and up to $5,000 if willful (S.C. Code 37-21-80).
• Georgia, Missouri, Massachusetts, Montana, and Alabama allow up to a few thousand dollars per knowing violation once a caller has broken the rules more than once in 12 months.

States that still keep their own do not call list

Most states now rely on the federal registry. Ten still run a separate list: Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas. In most of them, the state list also pulls in state numbers from the federal registry, but not the other way around. Register on both. The federal list is what supports a TCPA lawsuit, so see our guide to the federal do not call rule.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

• Texas: SB 140, effective September 1, 2025, extended the telephone seller law to texts and added deceptive trade practice remedies to the no-call and TCPA-mirror chapters.
• Virginia: from January 1, 2026, replying STOP to a sales text is a do-not-contact request that must be honored for at least 10 years.
• Washington: a 2026 law cut damages for unsolicited commercial texts to $100 for suits filed on or after June 11, 2026.
• Pennsylvania: Act 47 of 2026 brings texts under the state law, moves calling hours to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., bans Sunday calls, and requires written consent for robocalls once it takes effect in October 2026.

What to do next

Find your state in the table. If it has its own page, read it for the exact rules, then keep a record of each call with our call log template. In most states the federal TCPA claim is the one worth the most, so the TCPA overview is the next stop. If you are unsure whether your calls are worth pursuing, a free case review can look at both the state and federal claims together.