Do Not Call List Law: When Calls After Registering Are Illegal

What the Do Not Call law actually prohibits

The National Do Not Call Registry is a list. The law that gives it teeth is the TCPA, 47 U.S.C. 227(c), and the FCC rule at 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(2): no person may “initiate any telephone solicitation” to “a residential telephone subscriber who has registered his or her telephone number on the national do-not-call registry.” The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule has a parallel ban at 16 CFR 310.4(b)(1)(iii)(B).

The key word is solicitation. A “telephone solicitation” is a call or message “for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services” (47 U.S.C. 227(a)(4)). The Registry is aimed at sales calls. It is not a general block on every call you do not want.

The 31-day rule

Telemarketers do not have to check the Registry before every single call. They must use a version of the Registry “obtained from the administrator of the registry no more than 31 days prior to the date any call is made” (64.1200(c)(2)(i)(D); 16 CFR 310.4(b)(3)(iv)). That is why the FTC says your number “should show up on the Registry the next day, but it can take up to 31 days for sales calls to stop.”

In practice: a sales call on day 10 after you registered is probably not a violation. A sales call on day 45 probably is, unless an exception applies. Registration does not expire. The FTC removes a number only if it is disconnected and reassigned, or if you ask.

The two-calls-in-12-months threshold

You cannot sue over a single Do Not Call violation. Section 227(c)(5) gives a right to sue only to “a person who has received more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity in violation of the regulations.”

• Two or more. One call is not enough. Two violating calls from the same company inside any rolling 12 months is.
• Same entity. The calls must be made by or for the same company. Two calls from different call centers selling for the same insurer can both count toward that insurer if both were made on its behalf.
• Any 12-month period. It is a rolling window, not a calendar year. Calls in November and the following February count together.

Once you clear that threshold, each violating call is worth up to $500, and up to three times that amount if the court finds the violation willful or knowing. The TCPA penalties page works through the math.

Exceptions: who can still call a registered number

The FTC also lists calls the Registry does not stop: political calls, charitable calls, debt collection calls, purely informational calls and surveys. It attaches a condition: these calls “can’t also include a sales pitch.” A “survey” that ends with an offer is a sales call.

The business relationship exception is narrower than callers claim. It belongs to the specific company you dealt with, and it does not automatically extend to affiliates unless you would reasonably expect them to be included (64.1200(f)(5)(ii)). It ends the moment you tell that company to stop calling you, “even if the subscriber continues to do business with the seller” (64.1200(f)(5)(i)).

The “good faith error” defense

A telemarketer is not liable for a Registry call it can show was an error, if it had written Do Not Call procedures, trained its staff, kept a do-not-call list, scrubbed against a Registry copy no more than 31 days old, and bought its own Registry access (64.1200(c)(2)(i)). The statute adds an affirmative defense for a company that “has established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures” to prevent violations (227(c)(5)). Repeated calls after you asked to stop are hard to explain as an error.

Cell phones are covered

The Registry takes cell phone numbers, and the FTC says cell numbers are treated the same as any other registered number. The FCC applies its Do Not Call rules to calls and texts to wireless numbers (64.1200(e)). Business lines are a different story. The FTC states that “business phone numbers and fax lines are not covered.”

One caution for texts: in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services (July 14, 2026), the Seventh Circuit held that the private right of action in 227(c)(5) covers telephone calls, not text messages. In Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, you cannot sue under the federal Do Not Call provision for marketing texts. Voice calls to your cell phone are unaffected, and so are autodialed-text claims under 227(b), which the FCC and other appeals courts treat as calls. Outside the Seventh Circuit, Do Not Call claims over texts are contested and depend on the court. See our text message rules page and our report on the Steidinger decision.

The company’s own do-not-call list

The national Registry is only half the law. Every company that makes telemarketing calls must keep its own internal list, under 64.1200(d). When you tell a caller “put me on your do-not-call list,” the rules require the company to:

• have a written do-not-call policy available on demand,
• train everyone who makes calls,
• record your name and number “at the time the request is made,”
• honor the request “within a reasonable time,” not to exceed ten business days,
• keep honoring it for five years, and
• give the caller’s name, the company’s name, and a contact number or address on every call.

This rule does not depend on the national Registry. Even if you never registered, a sales call from the same company more than ten business days after you said stop is a violation. Two of those in 12 months can support a 227(c)(5) claim. The company cannot make you listen to a sales pitch, call a different number, or pay a fee before it records your request (16 CFR 310.4(b)(1)(ii)).

Still getting calls after joining the Do Not Call Registry?

The FTC’s own answer is blunt: the Registry “won’t stop calls from scammers making illegal calls.” It stops calls only from companies that follow the law. Consumers commonly report sales calls about auto warranties, Medicare plans, solar panels and debt relief that show spoofed or rotating caller IDs.

That does not mean you are out of luck. Behind most of those calls is a real company that buys the leads. If you stay on the line long enough to learn who is selling, or if you get a follow-up email, text or contract, you can often identify the seller. The seller can be liable for calls made “on its behalf.” Our page on illegal telemarketer calls covers the common schemes.

What the Registry does not do

• It does not block calls. Your phone still rings.
• It does not cover political calls, charities, surveys, debt collectors or informational calls without a sales pitch.
• It does not cover business numbers.
• It does not replace the consent rules for robocalls. A prerecorded sales call to your cell phone needs written consent whether or not you are registered.
• It is not a lawsuit. Reporting a call at DoNotCall.gov helps enforcement but does not recover money for you.

How to build a Do Not Call violation claim

1. Confirm your registration date. Calls count only after day 31.
2. For each sales call, note the date, time, number shown, and the company named. Ask who they are calling for.
3. Say “put me on your do-not-call list” and note the date. That starts the ten-business-day clock for the internal list rule.
4. Keep going. You need at least two calls from the same company in 12 months. Log them in the call evidence log.
5. If you cannot yet name the company, use our guide for identifying an unknown caller.