TCPA Text Message Rules: What Applies When a Business Texts Customers

The table lists each rule, where it is written and how settled it is for text messages. The citations are to 47 U.S.C. 227, which is the statute, and 47 CFR 64.1200, which is the FCC's regulation under it.

A rule can be published and enforceable by the FCC while a court in one part of the country refuses to let private plaintiffs sue over it. Both are true of the Do Not Call rule for texts today.

The statute never mentions text messages in its main prohibitions. The FCC filled the gap. Its regulation states that the term call includes a text message, including one sent by short message service, and a separate paragraph applies the Do Not Call and calling-hours rules to calls or text messages to wireless numbers.

Courts followed that reading for years under the autodialer section, 227(b). The Seventh Circuit's 2026 opinion in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services lists decisions from the First, Second, Ninth and Eleventh Circuits applying 227(b) to texts, including a January 2026 Ninth Circuit decision holding that a text message is properly deemed a call. It also notes that the Supreme Court has twice assumed the point without deciding it.

The change came from a 2025 Supreme Court decision, McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, which the Seventh Circuit cites for the rule that a court is not bound by the FCC's interpretation of the statute. Using that freedom, the Seventh Circuit held on 14 July 2026 that a text is not a telephone call within the meaning of 227(c)(5), the section that lets a person sue over Do Not Call violations. The court left the autodialer section alone and said spam texts may still be curbed through agency action.

The statute prohibits using an automatic telephone dialing system, or an artificial or prerecorded voice, to call a cell phone without the prior express consent of the called party. The FCC added a higher tier for advertising and telemarketing. Its definition of prior express written consent is a written agreement bearing the person's signature that clearly authorizes the seller to deliver advertisements or telemarketing messages using an autodialer or a prerecorded voice, and that includes the phone number. The agreement must disclose that the person is not required to sign as a condition of buying anything. An electronic signature counts if it is valid under federal or state law.

Two things about that tier changed recently. First, the FCC's attempt to require consent one seller at a time never took effect. A Kelley Drye summary describes the one-to-one consent rule as vacated by the Eleventh Circuit before its effective date, and the research we rely on dates that ruling to 24 January 2025. Second, Duane Morris reports that on 25 February 2026 a Fifth Circuit panel held, in Bradford v. Sovereign Pest Control of TX, that the statute does not require consent to be in writing and that prior express oral consent is enough. That decision binds federal courts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The FCC's written-consent rule is still published.

Consent also interacts with the Do Not Call rules, which are a separate test. A person whose number is on the national registry can be solicited only with a signed, written agreement that names the seller and the number, or within an established business relationship. The checklist below is the wording the FCC definition calls for, in plain form.

• The name of the seller that will send the messages
• A clear statement that the person agrees to receive marketing texts sent with automated technology
• The phone number the consent covers
• A statement that agreeing is not a condition of buying anything
• The person's signature, which may be electronic

The FCC's revocation rule sits at 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(10). As it stands today, a called party may revoke consent by any reasonable method. Replying with stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel or unsubscribe is treated as reasonable by definition. The sender must honor the request within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days from receipt.

An amended version was published in the Federal Register on 26 October 2026 and takes effect 30 days after publication, which law firms calculate as 25 November 2026. Under the amended text, a caller may designate certain automated methods as the exclusive way to revoke. A stop sent in reply to a marketing text revokes consent to all future marketing texts and calls from that caller. A stop sent in reply to an informational text may be treated as covering only that category of message.

One confirmation text with no marketing content is allowed. Our post on TCPA opt-out requirements goes through the change in detail.

The calling-hours rule is 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1), and paragraph (e) applies it to texts sent to wireless numbers. The clock that counts is the recipient's. A message scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Eastern arrives at 5:30 p.m. in California and is fine there, while a 9 a.m. Eastern send reaches a California phone at 6 a.m.

Whether the rule applies to someone who signed up for texts is disputed. The rule limits telephone solicitations, and the definition of that term excludes a message sent with the person's prior express invitation or permission. In April 2026 a federal court in Delaware dismissed a quiet-hours claim on that reasoning. A petition asking the FCC to settle the question has been pending since March 2025, and we found no ruling on it.

States set their own windows, and several are narrower than the federal one. Oregon's 2025 law limits solicitations to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pennsylvania's 2026 act bars solicitations before 9 a.m., after 7 p.m. and on Sundays. Our post on TCPA quiet hours has the full table.

Two lists matter. The national registry rule bars telephone solicitations to a residential subscriber who has registered. The internal list rule requires anyone making telemarketing calls to keep its own do-not-call list, record requests when they are made, honor them within ten business days at most, and keep them for five years. The FCC applies both to texts to wireless numbers.

The private right of action is narrower than the rule. Section 227(c)(5) lets a person sue after receiving more than one telephone call within twelve months in violation of the Do Not Call regulations. The Seventh Circuit held that a text is not a telephone call for that purpose. Fox Rothschild counted roughly 18 district court decisions going the other way and about 11 agreeing, as of mid-July 2026, and Mintz lists four more district courts that sided with the Seventh Circuit by late September. A Georgia case raising the same question is on appeal in the Eleventh Circuit.

None of this changes the rule for voice calls, and none of it removes the FCC's own enforcement power. It also leaves state law untouched. The plaintiffs in the Seventh Circuit case had pleaded a Florida claim alongside the federal one.

The TCPA has a savings clause. It says the section does not preempt a state law that imposes more restrictive intrastate requirements on, among other things, autodialers and telephone solicitations. States have used that room, and a text that is lawful under a federal court's reading can still break a state statute.

The table shows the four state laws we opened in the statute books. Other states have telemarketing laws that reach texts, and we have not verified them against primary text for this post.

Both private rights of action in the TCPA use the same figures. Under 227(b)(3), a person may recover actual loss or 500 dollars for each violation, whichever is greater. Under 227(c)(5), a person who has received more than one prohibited call in twelve months may recover up to 500 dollars per violation. In both, a court may award up to three times the amount if the violation was willful or knowing.

The Do Not Call section also contains a defense. It is an affirmative defense that the business established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures to prevent violations. The FCC's rule spells out a matching safe harbor for registry errors: written procedures, trained staff, a recorded do-not-call list and a registry copy no more than 31 days old.