How to Comply with TCPA When Making Calls

How to do it

1. 1

   Classify the call before you dial

   The rules differ sharply between marketing and non-marketing calls. Telemarketing calls placed with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice to a cell phone, and prerecorded marketing calls to a residential line, require prior express written consent. Informational and transactional calls face a lower bar. Decide which bucket each campaign falls in first, because it decides everything downstream.

2. 2

   Collect prior express written consent for marketing

   For autodialed or AI-voice marketing calls, capture a clear written agreement from the consumer that names the seller and states they agree to receive such calls at that number, without making consent a condition of purchase. A checkbox on a form with the disclosure text and a timestamp is the usual evidence. Keep the exact language and date you captured it.

3. 3

   Honor the 8am to 9pm local calling window

   Federal rules bar telemarketing calls before 8am or after 9pm in the called party's local time, not yours. Because you are dialing across time zones, the safe move is to compute the window from each lead's own area code or address, and to hold calls that would land outside it.

4. 4

   Scrub against the National DNC Registry

   Telemarketers must remove numbers on the FTC's National Do Not Call Registry and re-scrub at least every 31 days, since registrations are permanent but your list keeps changing. Skipping the scrub is one of the most common and most expensive TCPA mistakes.

5. 5

   Maintain and honor an internal do-not-call list

   Separate from the national registry, you must keep your own suppression list of anyone who has asked you specifically to stop calling, and honor those requests promptly. An internal opt-out overrides an established business relationship, so a past customer who says 'stop' must be suppressed.

6. 6

   Identify yourself and offer an opt-out on every call

   State the individual or company on whose behalf the call is made and a way to reach them, and give the person a clear way to opt out. Prerecorded and AI-voice marketing calls must include an automated opt-out mechanism the caller can use during the message.

7. 7

   Check state laws, which are often stricter

   Several states, including Florida and Oklahoma, have mini-TCPA statutes with tighter consent rules, narrower calling hours, or their own registries. Where a state rule is stricter than the federal one, you have to follow the state rule for calls to that state.

8. 8

   Keep records that prove compliance

   Retain consent evidence, scrub dates, call logs, and opt-out requests. In a TCPA dispute the burden of proving consent falls on the caller, so your records are the defense. Store them long enough to cover the statute of limitations, generally at least four years.

Common gotchas

• Treating one-time consent as blanket consent, when it is tied to a specific number, seller, and purpose.
• Calculating the 8am to 9pm window from your own time zone instead of the called party's local time.
• Scrubbing the national DNC list once and forgetting the 31-day re-scrub as the list and your data change.
• Ignoring internal opt-outs because a past purchase created an established business relationship, which does not override a 'stop calling' request.
• Assuming federal compliance covers you when a state like Florida imposes stricter consent or hour rules.
• Not keeping consent and scrub records, so you cannot meet the burden of proving consent if you are sued.

Where Topcalls fits

Topcalls builds the mechanical parts of TCPA hygiene into the calling flow at $0.35/min, all-inclusive, so compliance tooling is not a separate line item. Lists can be scrubbed against do-not-call data before dialing, calling hours can be constrained per time zone, and every call is recorded and transcribed, which gives you the audit trail the law expects you to keep. When a conversation moves outside the AI's scope, it can warm-transfer to a human rather than pushing on. Topcalls provides the controls; you still own the consent you collect and the legal judgment about which calls you are allowed to make, so treat this as tooling, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions