If telemarketers keep calling your cell phone, federal law generally bars them from using an autodialer or a prerecorded or artificial voice to reach it without your prior express consent, and FCC rules require written consent for prerecorded telemarketing calls. Consent can be revoked in any reasonable way, and the National Do Not Call Registry limits sales calls from law-abiding companies.
Most people facing a stream of sales calls on their cell phone are not sure what they ever agreed to. Maybe they filled out a form, bought something once, or never dealt with the company at all. They have replied STOP, or said "take me off your list," and the calls keep coming. What they want to know is simple: is this legal, and what does the law give them to make it stop?
This page walks through the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (the TCPA), the federal law on calls and texts, as it applies to cell phones: the core rule, consent and how to take it back, the Do Not Call Registry, texts, what the law allows a court to award, and the official complaint channels.
What the Telephone Consumer Protection Act Says About Cell Phones
The TCPA's central cell-phone rule is 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii). It makes it unlawful "to make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice" to "any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call." A number "assigned to a cellular telephone service" is, in plain terms, a mobile number from a wireless carrier.
The rule reaches two separate kinds of calls. The first is a call made with an automatic telephone dialing system. Under 47 U.S.C. § 227(a)(1), that means "equipment which has the capacity (A) to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and (B) to dial such numbers." The Supreme Court read this definition in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid (No. 19-511, decided April 1, 2021). The second is a call using an artificial or prerecorded voice, which the rule covers whatever equipment dialed it.
The rule is written around how a call is made, not why it is made. The printed statute still contains an exception for calls made solely to collect a debt owed to, or backed by, the United States. The Supreme Court held that exception invalid and severed it in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants (No. 19-631, July 6, 2020), so it is not part of the rule today. Whether a particular call falls within the rule depends on how it was made and its facts.
Prior Express Consent: When a Telemarketer May Call a Cell Phone
Consent is the main door through which an automated call may lawfully reach a cell phone. Prior express consent means the person called agreed, before the call was made, to receive it. A caller cannot ring first and seek permission afterward.
For sales calls, the bar is higher. Under 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(2), a call that "includes or introduces an advertisement or constitutes telemarketing," made with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice to the lines the rule covers, generally requires "the prior express written consent of the called party." The listed exceptions are calls by or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, which need prior express consent, and certain health care messages under the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The FCC's consumer guide says written consent can be given "on paper or through electronic means, including website forms or a telephone keypress."
Consent can also be taken back. Under 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(10), a called party may revoke consent "by using any reasonable method to clearly express a desire not to receive further calls or text messages." Using an automated or key-press opt-out on a call, replying "stop," "quit," "end," "revoke," "opt out," "cancel," or "unsubscribe" to a text, or using a website or number the caller designates for opt-outs each counts as reasonable on its own. A reply in other words must be treated as a revocation if a reasonable person would understand it that way. Callers "may not designate an exclusive means to request revocation of consent," and every revocation "must be honored within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days from receipt."
The National Do Not Call Registry and Telemarketing Rules
A separate set of rules targets sales calls whether or not a machine dials them. According to the FTC's Do Not Call Registry FAQs, it is free to register a home or cell phone number at DoNotCall.gov. A number should appear the next day, but sales calls can take up to 31 days to stop. Registration never expires; the FTC removes a number only if it is disconnected and reassigned or the owner asks.
Under 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(2), no one may start a telephone solicitation to a residential subscriber who has registered on the national registry, and registrations "must be honored indefinitely" unless cancelled or removed. A caller is not liable for an error if it shows written procedures, staff training, a recorded do-not-call list, use of a registry version no more than 31 days old, and proper purchase of the data. Calls with a signed written agreement that includes the number, and calls from a telemarketer with a personal relationship with the recipient, also fall outside the rule. Separately, 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(1) bars solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time.
Not every call is a "telephone solicitation." Under 47 U.S.C. § 227(a)(4), the term excludes calls made with prior express invitation or permission, calls to someone with whom the caller has an established business relationship, and calls by a tax-exempt nonprofit. Political calls follow their own rules, which the FCC guide describes. The FTC adds that even a company a person recently did business with "has to stop" if asked. A company-specific do-not-call request has its own deadline: under 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(d), a telemarketer must record the request, honor it within ten business days, and keep honoring it for 5 years.
The Registry also has limits. The FTC says it "doesn't block calls," and it "won't stop calls from scammers making illegal calls." The Do Not Call rules and the automated-call rules are separate, so a call may break one, the other, both, or neither, depending on its facts.
Robocalls, Robotexts, and the Rules That Apply to Each
A robocall, in the FCC's words, is a phone call "made using an autodialer or a prerecorded or artificial voice message." A robotext is the text-message version: a text sent to a mobile phone using an autodialer. The labels matter less than the method, since the rules turn on how the message was sent and what it was for.
The FCC's robocall and text guide states that FCC rules "ban text messages sent to a mobile phone using an autodialer unless the phone owner previously gave consent to receive the message or the message is sent for emergency purposes." It adds that "commercial texts require written consent; for informational texts, your consent may be oral," and that these rules apply even if the number is not on the Do Not Call Registry. For calls, the guide says FCC rules require "oral or written consent before making an autodialed or prerecorded call or text to your wireless number."
The revocation rule in 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(10), described in the consent section above, applies to calls and texts alike. Once a person revokes by a method the rule treats as reasonable, consent "is considered definitively revoked and the caller may not send additional robocalls and robotexts." If a sender uses a texting system that cannot accept replies, each text must say so clearly and give other reasonable ways to revoke.
Someone who has typed STOP more than once may wonder whether that word really counted. It is one of the words the regulation names, so the same ten-business-day limit applies. That is a rule about consent, kept apart from the Registry rules above.
What the TCPA's Private Right of Action Allows
The TCPA lets a person go to court, in two separate provisions with different conditions. Neither one means that every unwanted call creates liability. Conduct may violate the statute only when its conditions are met, and whether a particular situation does depends on its facts.
The first, 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3), covers the automated-call and artificial or prerecorded voice rules and the regulations under them. A person or entity may, "if otherwise permitted by the laws or rules of court of a State," bring an action in an appropriate state court to stop the violation, to recover "for actual monetary loss from such a violation, or to receive $500 in damages for each such violation, whichever is greater," or both. If the court finds the defendant "willfully or knowingly" violated the rules, the court "may, in its discretion," increase the award to not more than 3 times that amount.
The second, 47 U.S.C. § 227(c)(5), covers the do-not-call regulations. It is available 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 those rules, again if otherwise permitted by state law or court rules. That person may seek to stop the violation, to recover actual monetary loss "or to receive up to $500 in damages for each such violation, whichever is greater," or both. The defendant has an affirmative defense if it "established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures" to prevent such calls. The same discretionary increase of up to 3 times applies for willful or knowing violations.
These are what the statute allows a court to award, not what any person will receive.
How to File a Complaint About Unwanted Calls
Federal agencies run their own reporting channels, separate from any court action. Each official page describes what a report does and does not do.
The FTC's Do Not Call FAQs say a consumer who did not lose money and wants to report a call may use the streamlined form at DoNotCall.gov. A consumer who lost money to a phone scam, or has information about the caller, may report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC says it "can't respond to each" report because it receives millions a year, but it and other agencies analyze reports to act against illegal callers. It also releases reported numbers each business day to carriers and industry partners working on call blocking. Even a number that looks spoofed can still be reported, the FTC says, because calls can sometimes be traced.
The FCC's consumer guide says a consumer may report illegal calls or texts to the FCC by choosing the "unwanted calls" category and noting whether the number is being spoofed, blocked, or mislabeled. The FCC "doesn't resolve individual complaints but uses them to guide policy and possible enforcement," and a complaint may be shared with other agencies.
For someone who has written down dates and numbers for weeks, these channels are one place that record can go. A report creates no particular outcome for the person who files it. The FTC also suggests noting the date a person asked a company to stop. Calls from a debt collector can also raise a different federal law, covered in this site's page on a debt collector who keeps calling.
If You'd Like a Consumer Rights Case Review
Unwanted sales calls often turn on details that are easy to lose: what a person agreed to and when, the exact words of each STOP reply, whether a number was on the Registry, and how many calls came from the same company in a year. A conversation about a case like this can cover the company calling, the call and text logs and screenshots kept, any opt-out already sent and what happened after, and the dates that matter. This page covers federal rules only; state law may add protections and differs from state to state, and debt-collection calls fall under a different federal law, outlined in the consumer law FAQ and this site's overview of federal consumer protection law.
To discuss unwanted telemarketing calls or texts with an attorney, a reader may request a consumer rights case review through Federal Consumer Rights.
