Telemarketer Violations: The Rules Sales Callers Must Follow

The rule set every sales caller works under

Telemarketing is legal. Illegal telemarketing is common. The difference comes down to a short list of rules from two sources: the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), with the FCC’s rules at 47 C.F.R. 64.1200, and the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) at 16 C.F.R. Part 310. The TCPA gives you a private right to sue. The TSR is mostly enforced by the FTC and states.

Do Not Call claims: the two-call threshold

The private Do Not Call claim in 47 U.S.C. 227(c)(5) belongs 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 rules. So one call is a complaint. Two calls from the same seller within a year, to a number on the Registry, is a claim. Damages are up to $500 per call, trebled to up to $1,500 if the violation was willful or knowing.

Two points people miss:

• The calls can be live. Unlike the robocall rule, the Do Not Call rule does not require a recording or an autodialer. A human sales rep dialing by hand still violates it.
• “On behalf of” counts. Calls from different call centers selling the same company’s product can add up against that company. See how liability works when a vendor places the calls.

Consent and the established business relationship

A seller can call a Registry number if you gave it signed, written permission, or if it has an “established business relationship” with you. Under 64.1200(f)(5), that relationship lasts 18 months after your last purchase or transaction, or three months after an inquiry or application. Once you tell the company to stop calling, the relationship no longer excuses calls.

For recorded or artificial voice sales calls, the bar is higher. The FCC requires “prior express written consent”: a written agreement, signed by you (e-signatures count), that clearly authorizes that seller to send you telemarketing using a recording or autodialer. A web form you never filled out, or a checkbox buried on a site selling something else, is often where these cases turn. Our page on what written consent requires covers the details.

What a court has done with these rules

In United States v. DISH Network L.L.C., 954 F.3d 970 (7th Cir. March 26, 2020), the federal government and four states sued over DISH’s telemarketing. After a five-week bench trial, the district judge found that DISH and its agents committed more than 65 million violations of telemarketing laws, and imposed $280 million. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the core liability findings, including that retailers selling DISH service acted as its agents. It vacated the ruling that DISH “substantially assisted” one retailer and the measure of damages, and sent those parts back. The court noted that $280 million worked out to closer to $4 per improper call than to the statutory maximums.

The case matters for individuals because the same rules apply to your claim. The DISH findings rested on Do Not Call calls, abandoned calls and prerecorded calls, all of which consumers also report.

What is not a telemarketing violation

• Informational calls that do not sell anything, such as appointment reminders or fraud alerts from your bank. Those fall under different rules.
• Calls from a tax-exempt nonprofit soliciting donations are excluded from the “telephone solicitation” definition.
• Political calls by a live person. They are not telephone solicitations, though recorded political calls to cell phones still need consent.
• One call from a seller to a Registry number in a year. It is illegal, but it does not open the private right to sue.
• Calls you asked for, like a quote request you actually submitted, until you tell them to stop.

Can you sue under the Telemarketing Sales Rule?

Rarely. The Telemarketing Act lets a private person sue only if the pattern of illegal telemarketing caused more than $50,000 in actual damages to that person (15 U.S.C. 6104(a)). That is why nearly all consumer cases use the TCPA instead. TSR violations still matter as evidence and as grounds for FTC complaints.

How to document telemarketing calls

1. Confirm your Registry status at donotcall.gov and save the confirmation showing your registration date. Registrations do not expire.
2. Get the seller’s name. Ask “what company are you calling for?” Note what product they pitched.
3. Say “put me on your do-not-call list” and note the date. That starts the 10-business-day clock under 64.1200(d)(3).
4. Log every call, including missed ones, with date, time and caller ID number.
5. Save recordings. A recorded or robotic voice adds a separate 227(b) claim on top of the Do Not Call claim.

What to do next if a telemarketer will not stop

If you are on the Registry and a seller has called you twice in the past year, you likely meet the threshold for a Do Not Call claim. Write down the company name and the dates, then read our step-by-step guide on how to sue a telemarketer. If the calls used a recording, check the Do Not Call list rules and the prerecorded voice rules together, since both can apply to the same call. A free case review can tell you which claims fit.