Cold Calling Laws in the US

Which federal laws cover cold calling?

• The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the FCC's rules under it, which cover automated and prerecorded calls, calling hours and do-not-call requests.
• The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), which covers what telemarketers can say and do.
• The National Do Not Call Registry, run by the FTC, where people can register personal numbers.

Is B2B cold calling legal in the US?

Yes. The TSR exempts calls between a telemarketer and a business, including from its National Do Not Call Registry provisions.

Two exceptions apply. Since 16 May 2024, the ban on misrepresentations covers B2B calls too, so what your caller says about price, terms or results has to be true. And calls selling nondurable office or cleaning supplies to businesses must follow the full rule.

The National Do Not Call Registry

The registry is for personal numbers, and the FTC says B2B calls are exempt from its registry rules. The risk is a contact's personal or mobile number: if a number may be personal, check it against the registry before calling. Whatever the number, anyone who asks not to be called again should go on your own do-not-call list straight away.

Can you cold call mobile numbers?

The FCC's rules ban calls made with an automatic telephone dialing system or a prerecorded voice to mobile numbers without the person's prior express consent. A live call that a person dials isn't covered by that rule, but the Do Not Call rules can still apply to a personal mobile.

For automated or prerecorded calls made without consent, people can sue for $500 per call, or up to three times that if the breach was wilful.

What are the legal calling hours in the US?

Federal rules ban telephone solicitations to residential numbers before 8am or after 9pm, in the time zone of the person called. Both the FCC's rule and the TSR set this window. Business lines aren't covered by the federal hours, but some states set their own.

Can you record cold calls?

Federal law allows a call to be recorded with the consent of one person on it. Some states are stricter: in California, recording a confidential call without the consent of everyone on it can be fined up to $2,500 per violation. Telling people at the start of the call that it's recorded is the usual way to meet the stricter rules.

State cold calling laws: Florida, Texas and California

State laws add to the federal rules. Three that come up most often for B2B calling:

Can you call a lead in the US who asked you to?

Allowed if they enquired in the last 90 days · 90 days from an enquiry, 540 days from a purchase

• An enquiry or application about your product creates an established business relationship for 90 days, and you can call someone in one even if their number is on the National Do Not Call Registry (16 CFR 310.2(q) and 310.4(b)(1)(iii)(B)).
• A purchase, rental or lease, or a financial transaction, extends it to 540 days. A written agreement to your calls, with their signature and number, also works.
• It ends as soon as they tell you not to call them again.

Source: 16 CFR 310.2 (established business relationship) · 16 CFR 310.4 (Do Not Call safe harbor) · Do not call exemptions by country

What has changed in the US?

• 16 May 2024

  The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule began to cover misleading claims in business-to-business calls, which were previously exempt from almost all of the rule.