TCPA Penalties: $500 to $1,500 Per Call

The damages the statute sets

The TCPA puts a price on each violation so you do not have to prove how much a robocall hurt you. There are two private damages provisions, and they are worded slightly differently.

Notice the difference. Under 227(b)(3), the $500 is fixed: “to receive $500 in damages for each such violation.” Under 227(c)(5), the text says “up to $500,” which gives a court room to award less. Do not assume the full $500 on a Do Not Call claim.

The increase to $1,500 is also discretionary. The statute says the court “may, in its discretion, increase the amount” if it finds the defendant “willfully or knowingly violated” the law. Evidence that helps: calls that continued after you asked them to stop, a caller who admitted knowing your number was on the Registry, or a company with prior complaints for the same conduct.

Worked examples

These examples show the math only. They assume each call is a proven violation and no defense applies. Real cases settle for more or less depending on evidence, the defendant’s ability to pay, and whether the case is individual or a class action.

Texts count differently depending on the claim. Autodialed marketing texts are treated as calls under 227(b) by the FCC and by the appeals courts that have ruled. Do Not Call damages for texts under 227(c)(5) are contested: the Seventh Circuit held in July 2026 that texts are not “telephone calls” under that section, so in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin a Registry-only text claim is worth $0 in federal court. Other courts have not settled it.

Want to run your own numbers? The TCPA case value calculator does the same arithmetic with your call count.

Can one call count twice?

Sometimes one call breaks two different rules: for example, a prerecorded sales call to a cell phone that is also on the Do Not Call Registry. The prerecorded-call claim falls under 227(b)(3) and the Registry claim under 227(c)(5). The two provisions are separate, each with its own “for each such violation” language. Whether a court will award both for the same call is a question to put to a lawyer before you count on doubled damages.

What a TCPA award does not include

• No attorney fee provision. Section 227 contains no clause shifting attorney’s fees to the losing caller. Consumer lawyers usually take TCPA cases on contingency, paid from the recovery.
• No separate punitive damages clause. The only multiplier in 227(b)(3) and (c)(5) is the willful or knowing increase.
• No damages for a single Do Not Call call. Section 227(c)(5) requires more than one call in 12 months from the same entity.

Who pays: the seller, the call center, or both

Many sales calls are placed by a call center or lead generator working for someone else. The statute reaches both. Section 227(c)(5) covers calls made “by or on behalf of the same entity,” so the company whose product was being sold can be responsible for calls a vendor placed for it. The FCC’s rules make the point directly for do-not-call lists: if a third party keeps the list, “the person or entity on whose behalf the call is made will be liable for any failures to honor the do-not-call request” (64.1200(d)(3)). The fax rules say the same about opt-out requests (64.1200(a)(4)(v)).

This matters for collecting. An offshore dialing shop may be impossible to sue or collect from. The insurer, solar installer or warranty seller that bought the leads usually is not. Identifying the seller is often worth more than identifying the dialer.

When actual damages beat $500

Both damages provisions let you choose your “actual monetary loss” if it is greater than the statutory amount. For most people it is not. But the cell phone ban in 227(b)(1)(A)(iii) also covers “any service for which the called party is charged for the call,” and a business flooded with junk faxes may have real costs in paper, toner and staff time. Keep receipts if the calls or faxes cost you money. Otherwise, the $500 figure is simpler to prove.

FCC fines are a separate system

The FCC can fine robocallers directly, but that money goes to the U.S. Treasury, not to the people who were called. The rules for FCC forfeitures are in 47 U.S.C. 227(b)(4):

• An ordinary violation carries a forfeiture set under the Communications Act’s general penalty formula (47 U.S.C. 503(b)(2)).
• A violation made “with the intent to cause such violation” adds “an additional penalty not to exceed $10,000” per violation.
• The FCC must act within 1 year for ordinary violations or 4 years for intentional ones.

Caller ID spoofing has its own penalty. Under the Truth in Caller ID provisions, 47 U.S.C. 227(e)(5), the FCC may fine up to $10,000 per violation, or three times that for each day of a continuing violation, capped at $1,000,000 for a single act. Willful and knowing spoofing is also a crime punishable by fines on the same scale.

An example: in May 2024 the FCC proposed a $6 million fine against political consultant Steve Kramer for spoofed robocalls that used an AI clone of President Biden’s voice to tell New Hampshire voters to skip the primary. The FCC’s release called it a proposal for “apparent spoofing violations.” A proposed fine is not a final finding, and none of it goes to the people who got the calls.

State attorneys general can sue too

Under 47 U.S.C. 227(g), a state attorney general may sue on behalf of residents for “a pattern or practice” of violations and recover “$500 in damages for each violation,” trebled for willful or knowing conduct.

The Telemarketing Sales Rule has different penalties

The FTC enforces the Telemarketing Sales Rule, which also bans Registry calls and calls outside 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Consumers can sue under 15 U.S.C. 6104 only if actual damages exceed $50,000 per person, and within 3 years after discovering the violation. For almost every individual, the TCPA’s per-call damages are the better route.

Class actions change the math

When a company made the same kind of call to thousands of people, statutory damages multiply fast, which is why many TCPA cases are class actions. Class members usually receive a share of a settlement fund rather than $500 per call. Our guide to TCPA settlement check amounts explains why class payouts can be far smaller than the statutory figure, and our class action overview covers when an individual case makes more sense.

How to put a number on your own case

Count the calls or texts you can prove, within the last four years. Separate them by rule: robocalls or texts without consent, Registry calls, and calls after you said stop. Note any facts that show the caller knew what it was doing. Then read our walk-through on how to sue a telemarketer to see what a claim looks like from demand letter to settlement, or ask a lawyer whether individual or class treatment fits your facts. See the four-year TCPA deadline before you count older calls.