TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act)
The TCPA is a U.S. federal law that restricts telemarketing calls, autodialed and prerecorded calls, and unsolicited texts. It requires prior consent for certain contact, honors the Do-Not-Call registry, and enforces calling-time windows — with statutory damages per violation that make compliance a real financial risk.
How it works
TCPA governs how and when you can call or text consumers: consent requirements, quiet hours (generally 8am-9pm local time), DNC scrubbing, and identification rules. Penalties run $500-$1,500 per violation.
Why it matters
Outbound calling and SMS at scale without TCPA controls is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Compliance has to be enforced by the system, not left to operator discretion.
Which outbound activities does the TCPA actually reach?
The statute and the FCC rules under it sort contact into a few buckets. Calls made with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice to a wireless number generally need prior express consent, and prior express written consent when the purpose is telemarketing. Texts are treated as calls for this purpose, so an automated SMS campaign sits in the same bucket as a robocall. Live, manually placed sales calls to a residential line are governed mainly by the Do-Not-Call rules and the calling-hours window.
Business lines are handled differently from personal ones, but a decision-maker's mobile number often counts as a wireless number even when it appears on a company website. Teams that run SMS outreach under a documented consent policy usually classify every mobile as in scope unless counsel says otherwise.
How much exposure can one campaign create?
The TCPA gives recipients a private right of action with statutory damages of $500 per violation, which a court can raise to as much as $1,500 per violation if the conduct was willful or knowing. Each call or text can count separately.
A hypothetical makes the scale obvious. Suppose a team texts 2,000 mobile numbers with no consent record, then sends one follow-up. That is 4,000 messages. At $500 each the theoretical exposure is $2,000,000, and $6,000,000 at the willful ceiling. Class actions aggregate exactly this kind of arithmetic, which is why the controls belong in the sending system and not in a rep's memory.
What evidence should a consent record hold?
If a claim arrives, the question is whether you can prove consent for that number at that time. A usable record stores the phone number, the exact wording the person agreed to, the date and time, the source (web form URL, paper form, verbal script), and any later revocation. A spreadsheet column that says "opted in: yes" rarely survives scrutiny because it shows none of that.
Revocation matters as much as capture. A STOP reply or a spoken request should end automated contact on every channel, which is why the TCPA and your cross-channel do-not-contact list need to share one source of truth. This is general information, not legal advice; a telecom attorney should review your consent language.
Where should a team start if it has no TCPA controls today?
Start with the list, then the clock, then the dialer. Scrub every number against the National Do-Not-Call Registry and your internal suppression list before it enters a sequence. Next, gate sends to 8am to 9pm in the recipient's local time, using the contact's timezone and not your office's. Then check whether any calling path uses prerecorded messages or automated dialing, since those carry the stricter consent requirements.
In Autocloz these checks sit in the compliance gate that every step of the multichannel sequence builder passes through, so a call or text scheduled outside the window is held with a stated reason. Our guide to TCPA rules for cold calling walks through calling scripts separately.
How Autocloz handles it
Autocloz enforces TCPA-aligned controls in the sequence engine: cross-channel DNC suppression, quiet-hours/timezone gating, consent tracking and an auditable compliance log on every outbound touch.
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FAQ
Does the TCPA apply to B2B calls?
It primarily targets consumer contact, but many rules (DNC, prerecorded messages, texting to wireless numbers) can reach B2B mobile contacts. Treat mobile and personal numbers as in-scope and keep consent records.
What are TCPA quiet hours?
Calls and texts are generally restricted to 8am-9pm in the recipient's local time. Autocloz gates outbound touches to the contact's timezone automatically.
Related terms
A Do-Not-Contact (or Do-Not-Call) list is a record of people who have opted out of your outreach — or registered on a government DNC registry — whom you must not contact again. Honoring it is both a legal requirement (TCPA, GDPR, CAN-SPAM) and a deliverability/reputation safeguard.
A2P 10DLC is the U.S. framework for sending Application-to-Person text messages over standard 10-digit long-code numbers. Carriers require businesses to register their brand and campaigns (use cases) to send A2P SMS legitimately, with throughput and trust scores tied to that registration.
DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) registration is India's TRAI-mandated framework for commercial SMS. Businesses must register as an entity, register sender IDs (headers) and message templates on a DLT platform, and only send pre-approved content — otherwise messages are blocked.
Cold calling is the practice of phoning prospects who have had no prior contact with your company to introduce a product or service and open a sales conversation. It remains a direct outbound channel in B2B sales, though modern practice pairs it with research and multichannel context rather than dialing unqualified lists blindly.
Sources
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