Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)

Scope, in the statute’s words

• The core restrictions in 227(b)(1) begin: “It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, or any person outside the United States if the recipient is within the United States.” (47 U.S.C. 227(b)(1))

• “Telephone solicitation” means “the initiation of a telephone call or message for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services,” with exclusions for calls or messages made with “prior express invitation or permission,” to a person “with whom the caller has an established business relationship,” or “by a tax exempt nonprofit organization.” (227(a)(4))

• The FCC’s calling-hours and do-not-call rules in 64.1200(c) refer to a “residential telephone subscriber.” (47 CFR 64.1200(c))

• On state law, 227(f)(1) says the TCPA does not “preempt any State law that imposes more restrictive intrastate requirements or regulations on, or which prohibits,” certain practices, including telephone solicitations.

• How these provisions apply to your calls, texts, and programs is a question for your compliance team or counsel.

How it works

• Autodialers. The statute defines an “automatic telephone dialing system” as equipment with the capacity “to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and to dial such numbers.” (227(a)(1)) In Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid (decided April 1, 2021), the Supreme Court held that “a device must have the capacity either to store a telephone number using a random or sequential generator or to produce a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator.” (opinion)

• Artificial or prerecorded voice, and consent. Section 227(b)(1)(A) restricts calls “using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice” to certain numbers, including cell phones, other than calls “made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party.” Section 227(b)(1)(B) covers artificial or prerecorded voice calls to residential lines.

• Telemarketing consent. The FCC defines “prior express written consent” as “an agreement, in writing, bearing the signature of the person called that clearly authorizes the seller to deliver or cause to be delivered to the person called advertisements or telemarketing messages using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice,” and the number it covers. (64.1200(f)(9))

• Calling hours and do-not-call. No person or entity may initiate a telephone solicitation to a residential subscriber “before the hour of 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. (local time at the called party’s location),” or to a number on the national do-not-call registry. (64.1200(c)(1) and (c)(2))

• Revoking consent. Under 64.1200(a)(10), a called party may revoke consent “by using any reasonable method,” replies of “stop,” “quit,” “end,” “revoke,” “opt out,” “cancel,” or “unsubscribe” are “a reasonable means per se,” and revocations “must be honored within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days from receipt.”

• Pending change. In FCC 26-67 (adopted Sept 30, released Oct 1, 2026), the FCC modified its rules “to allow callers to interpret a revocation request as applying only to the specific category of informational robocalls to which the revocation was directed, to allow callers to designate an exclusive means to revoke consent,” and to amend the financial institution fraud-alert exemption. The order says the amendments “become effective 30 days after Federal Register publication.” As of Oct 20, 2026, it had not been published. (FCC 26-67)

What it means for AI agents (operations questions)

In February 2024 the FCC confirmed in FCC 24-17 “that the TCPA’s restrictions on the use of ‘artificial or prerecorded voice’ encompass current AI technologies that generate human voices,” and that such calls “therefore require the prior express consent of the called party to initiate such calls absent an emergency purpose or exemption.” (FCC 24-17)

That raises system questions about how consent gets recorded and read before an AI voice call goes out:

• Are consent and revocation stored per number, per purpose, with the source record attached? Does the agent check both before every call or text, and what happens when the answer is “unknown”?

• When a revocation comes in anywhere (voice, text reply, email, a human agent’s notes), does it update one shared suppression state that every sender reads? Is the time it took logged?

• Do time-of-day and state rules (like Pennsylvania’s Act 47 window) live in central config keyed to the recipient, or in each campaign?