Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
A federal law limiting robocalls, autodialed calls and telemarketing; it lets people sue for $500 per violation, or up to $1,500 if the violation was willful.
Also called: TCPA, robocall law, Do Not Call law
A federal law limiting robocalls, autodialed calls and telemarketing; it lets people sue for $500 per violation, or up to $1,500 if the violation was willful.
What it means
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is a federal law that limits unwanted calls and texts. It bars calls made with an autodialer, or with an artificial or prerecorded voice, to a cell phone unless the caller has your prior express consent. Emergency calls are an exception. The Supreme Court has noted that a text message to a cell phone qualifies as a "call." The National Do Not Call Registry is a related program. You can list your number there to stop most telemarketing calls.
The TCPA also lets you sue. For autodialer and prerecorded-voice violations, you can recover your actual loss or $500 per violation, whichever is greater. If the violation was willful or knowing, a court can raise the award up to three times, or $1,500 per violation. For Do Not Call violations, you can sue if you received more than one call in 12 months from or for the same business.
The amounts add up across many calls and many people. That is why the TCPA is behind many class actions over robocalls and marketing texts.
What it means for you
You may have a TCPA claim if you keep getting marketing calls or texts after joining the Do Not Call Registry. The same goes if you never agreed to automated sales calls. Registration never expires, and telemarketers can take up to 31 days to remove a number from their lists. Political, charity, survey and debt collection calls are exempt from the registry. Keep dated screenshots and call logs. In a settlement, you usually confirm that you got calls at your number during a set period. Payments are shares of a fund, not $500 per call.
Example
Say a hypothetical home security company sends three marketing texts to your cell phone in one month. You never gave it your number or agreed to texts, and your number has been on the Do Not Call Registry for years. You could have a TCPA claim, and so could everyone else who got the same texts. If the company settles, the notice would explain how to claim a share, often with a short form and a sworn statement.
FAQ
Possibly. The TCPA treats a text to a cell phone as a call, so its rules on autodialed and prerecorded messages can apply. If you can sue, the law allows $500 per violation, or up to $1,500 if it was willful or knowing. Whether you have a claim depends on whether you consented and how the message was sent.
No. Political, charity, survey and debt collection calls are exempt, and companies you recently did business with, or that have your written permission, can still call. Registration never expires.
Related terms
- 47 U.S.C. 227: restrictions on telephone solicitation and autodialers (Cornell LII)
- Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 577 U.S. 153 (2016) (Cornell LII)
- FTC: National Do Not Call Registry FAQs
Updated Oct 18, 2026. Plain-English definitions for general information — not legal or tax advice.