Do Not Call List for Businesses: How to Access and Scrub the National Registry

The table gathers the working facts from the FTC's guidance for telemarketers and sellers, the fee rule at 16 CFR 310.8 and the FTC's August 2026 fee announcement.

One caution on the fee figures. The FTC's question-and-answer page was edited in September 2026 for the fee increase, and one answer on it gives 85 dollars while another still lists the previous year's 82 dollars and 41 dollars. The regulation text and the FTC's press release both give the fiscal year 2027 figures used here.

The FTC's guidance says sellers, telemarketers and service providers must access the registry. It adds that some sellers are exempt from the FTC's rules but must still access the registry under the FCC's rules. The practical point is that being outside the FTC's jurisdiction does not end the inquiry.

The fee rule fixes who pays. Under 16 CFR 310.8, it is a violation for a seller to call a number within an area code unless the seller has paid the annual fee for that area code, either directly or through another person. It is also a violation for a telemarketer to call on behalf of a seller unless that seller has paid. An agency or call center cannot cover its clients with its own subscription.

Some organizations may access the registry without being required to. The FTC says exempt organizations can obtain the data voluntarily at no fee after submitting a certification, and its fee announcement mentions certain charities and political callers. The FTC also says that nonprofit or tax-exempt status does not automatically make an organization exempt.

The telemarketer site is separate from the consumer site. Its front page asks new visitors to create an account and warns that unauthorized access is illegal under federal law. It also posts scheduled maintenance windows during which sellers, telemarketers and service providers cannot reach their accounts or download numbers, which is worth knowing when a sync is due.

The fee rule describes what happens at sign-up. Before accessing the registry, a person must provide the identifying information the operator needs to collect the fee and must certify, under penalty of law, that it is accessing the registry solely to comply with the rule or otherwise to prevent calls to registered numbers. A person accessing the registry on behalf of sellers must identify each seller, give each seller's account number and certify that the sellers will use the information only for those purposes.

Payment produces a subscription account number. The FTC's guidance says each subscription lasts twelve months, that the number expires with the subscription and that renewal produces a new one. Sellers must share their number with any telemarketer or service provider they use.

• Create an organization account on the telemarketer site
• Complete the certification about how the data will be used
• Select the area codes the business calls into
• Pay the fee for any area codes beyond the first five
• Record the subscription account number and its start date
• Give the number to each telemarketer or service provider that calls for the business
• Download the data, then schedule the next download inside 31 days

The FTC adjusts the fees each federal fiscal year. On 26 August 2026 it announced the fiscal year 2027 figures, effective 1 October 2026. A single area code costs 85 dollars, up 3 dollars. The maximum for access to every area code nationwide is 23,425 dollars, up from 22,626 dollars. An area code added during the second six months of a subscription costs 43 dollars, up from 41 dollars.

The annual period runs from the first day of the month in which the fee was paid, under 16 CFR 310.8. A business that subscribes in March renews in March.

Cost sharing is prohibited. The fee rule says no person may participate in any arrangement to share the cost of accessing the registry, including an arrangement with a telemarketer or service provider to divide the costs among its client sellers. The FCC's rule has a matching condition in its safe harbor: the caller must not sell, rent, lease or share the registry, or split access costs with a telemarketer's clients.

Scrubbing is trade language. The rules describe a process. The Telemarketing Sales Rule's safe harbor requires that the seller or telemarketer use a process to prevent calls to any number on its own do-not-call list or the national registry, employing a version of the registry obtained from the Commission no more than 31 days prior to the date any call is made, and that it maintain records documenting the process.

The FTC's guidance turns that into operating rules. Lists must be synchronized with an updated version of the registry at least every 31 days. A download can be taken only once in any 24-hour period. The FTC recommends a full download of the list at least every six months.

The date that matters is the date of the call. A list scrubbed on the first of the month is stale for a call placed on the fifth of the following month, even if nobody has touched the list in between.

Both agencies write the safe harbor as a list of conditions. The FCC's version, in 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(2), requires written procedures for complying with the national registry rules, training of personnel and of any entity assisting with compliance, a maintained and recorded list of numbers the caller may not contact, a process using a registry version obtained no more than 31 days before the call with records of it, and no selling, sharing or cost-splitting of the registry.

The FTC's version in 16 CFR 310.4(b)(3) adds that the seller or telemarketer monitors and enforces compliance with its procedures and that any call that does violate the rule is the result of error. The FTC's guidance uses the phrase routine business practice.

The Telemarketing Sales Rule gives two exceptions. The first is an express agreement in writing, signed by the person, that states the person's willingness to receive calls from that seller and includes the number to be called. An electronic signature counts if it is valid under federal or state law. The FCC's rule has the same exception and calls it prior express invitation or permission, evidenced by a signed, written agreement.

The second is an established business relationship. The FTC's guidance gives the periods: up to 18 months after the person's last purchase, payment or delivery, and three months after an inquiry or application. The FCC's definition uses the same 18-month and three-month periods.

Either exception ends when the person asks the company not to call. The FTC says a consumer can add themselves to a company's own do-not-call list even if their number is not on the national registry, and that the request ends the business relationship for calling purposes. The FCC's internal list rule requires that such a request be recorded when it is made, honored within ten business days at most and kept for five years.

On calls to businesses, the FTC's guidance says most phone calls to a business made with the intent to solicit sales from that business are exempt from the registry provisions. The exemption in 16 CFR 310.6 carves out sellers of nondurable office or cleaning supplies, who remain covered by most of the rule. The FCC's registry rule protects a residential telephone subscriber who has registered a number. A person can use one mobile number for both work and home, so the label on a lead list does not settle the question.

On texts, the FCC's regulation applies its registry and calling-hours rules to calls or text messages to wireless numbers. Private lawsuits are another matter. In July 2026 the Seventh Circuit held that the private Do Not Call claim in the statute covers telephone calls and not text messages, while leaving agency enforcement undisturbed, and other courts have disagreed. The FTC rule text we read does not mention text messages.

On state lists, two examples show the pattern. Kelley Drye describes the Texas no-call list as updated four times a year, with a bar on calling numbers that have been listed for 60 days or more. Florida's statute has its agriculture department maintain a no sales solicitation calls listing, published quarterly, and adds Florida numbers from the federal database to it.