TCPA Rules: What the FCC Regulations Require of Callers

Where the TCPA rules live

Congress wrote the Telephone Consumer Protection Act in 1991 and told the Federal Communications Commission to write the detailed rules. The statute is 47 U.S.C. 227. The FCC’s rules are 47 CFR 64.1200, titled “Delivery restrictions.” When a lawyer says a caller broke “the TCPA regulations,” this is the section they mean. The version summarized here is the eCFR text current through September 21, 2026.

The FTC has a separate rule, the Telemarketing Sales Rule (16 CFR Part 310). It overlaps with the FCC rules on hours and the Do Not Call Registry, but consumers usually cannot sue under it, for reasons explained below.

The core requirements, rule by rule

Three levels of consent

The rules sort calls into tiers, and each tier needs a different kind of permission.

• No robocall technology. A live person dialing by hand needs no consent under 227(b). The Do Not Call and calling-hours rules still apply if it is a sales call.
• Informational robocalls. An autodialed or prerecorded call to a cell phone that does not sell anything, such as an appointment reminder, needs “prior express consent.” Giving your number for that purpose is often enough.
• Telemarketing robocalls. Sales calls and texts made with an autodialer or a prerecorded or artificial voice need “prior express written consent” under 64.1200(f)(9): a signed agreement, electronic signatures allowed, that names the seller, covers robocalls, lists your number, and says you do not have to agree in order to buy anything.

Our page on what counts as prior express written consent walks through the disclosure language line by line.

What changed from 2024 to 2026

The one-to-one rule would have required that consent go to one seller at a time and cover only calls “logically and topically associated” with the website where you signed up. The Eleventh Circuit held that the FCC exceeded its authority, because consent in its ordinary meaning only requires that a person “clearly and unmistakably” agree. The Federal Register notice of August 29, 2025 says the court’s mandate issued April 30, 2025 and vacated the rule change as of that date.

Courts no longer have to follow the FCC’s reading of the statute

For years, federal district courts treated FCC orders interpreting the TCPA as binding. That ended with McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson Corp., decided June 20, 2025. The Supreme Court held that the Hobbs Act “does not preclude district courts in enforcement proceedings from independently assessing whether an agency’s interpretation of the relevant statute is correct.” Courts now decide what the statute means for themselves and give the FCC’s view “appropriate respect.” We explain the case in our McLaughlin v. McKesson news report.

This cuts both ways for consumers. The Seventh Circuit relied on McLaughlin in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services (July 14, 2026) to reject the FCC’s position that texts are calls for Do Not Call lawsuits. In other areas, a court might read the statute more broadly than the FCC did. Expect more disagreement between courts until the Supreme Court or Congress settles specific questions.

Which rules you can sue over

The statute creates two private rights of action:

• Section 227(b)(3) covers violations of subsection (b) “or the regulations prescribed under this subsection.” That includes robocalls without consent, prerecorded calls to home lines, and junk faxes. Damages are $500 per violation, up to $1,500 if willful or knowing.
• Section 227(c)(5) covers the Do Not Call rules. You must have received “more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity.” Damages are up to $500 per violation, up to $1,500 if willful or knowing.

Rules adopted under subsection (d), which covers technical standards such as identification in prerecorded messages and fax headers, are a harder fit. Maryland’s appellate court, citing earlier precedent, said section 227(d) “does not provide for a private right of action.” Plaintiffs often plead these failures as part of a (b) or (c) claim instead. The dollar side is covered on our TCPA penalties page.

How the Telemarketing Sales Rule fits in

The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule mirrors several FCC rules. It bans outbound sales calls to a person’s residence outside 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. without consent (16 CFR 310.4(c)). It bans calls to numbers on the Registry without a signed written agreement or an established business relationship (310.4(b)(1)(iii)(B)). It requires telemarketers to transmit caller ID (310.4(a)(8)). But a private suit under the Telemarketing Act, 15 U.S.C. 6104, requires more than $50,000 in actual damages per person. For an ordinary consumer, the TCPA is the practical route, and a TSR violation is mostly useful as a basis for a complaint to the FTC or your state attorney general.

What the rules do not cover

• Live, hand-dialed calls that are not sales calls, such as most political surveys, are largely outside the rules.
• Calls on behalf of tax-exempt nonprofits are excluded from the definition of “telephone solicitation,” so the Do Not Call and calling-hours rules do not reach them.
• Debt collection calls are not telemarketing. They still need consent if made with an autodialer or prerecorded voice to a cell phone. The 2015 exception for government-backed debt was struck down in Barr v. AAPC (2020).
• Business phone lines are not protected by the National Do Not Call Registry, according to the FTC. Robocall and fax rules can still apply.

Next step: match your calls to a rule

Write down what happened on each call: live person or recording, sales pitch or not, cell or landline, time of day, and whether your number was on the Registry. That tells you which rule applies. Then compare it to the practices listed on our guide to common TCPA violations, and log each call as it comes in with the evidence call log. If more than one rule was broken on the same calls, a lawyer can tell you how the claims fit together.