The TCPA: robocall law in plain English

What the TCPA is

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act passed in 1991, well before robocalls were a daily annoyance for most people. It restricts autodialed calls, prerecorded voice messages, and text messages sent to cell phones without the recipient's prior consent. It also restricts live telemarketing calls to residential lines and requires companies to maintain their own internal do-not-call lists, alongside the separate national Do Not Call Registry.

Why marketing forms ask you to check a box

For most automated marketing calls and texts, the law requires “prior express written consent” before a company can contact you that way. That's the reason so many signup forms have a separate checkbox for phone or text communications instead of bundling it into the general terms. A vague “by using this site you agree to our terms” usually isn't enough on its own.

What a violation is worth

The TCPA lets an individual sue over a violation without having to prove they lost money. Statutory damages run $500 per call or text, and up to $1,500 if the violation was willful or knowing. That's per violation, not per lawsuit, which is why TCPA cases sometimes involve large numbers when a company auto-dials thousands of people the same way.

How this connects to the data on this site

The FTC and FCC complaint forms linked from every lookup on this site are part of how the TCPA and related rules actually get enforced. A single complaint rarely triggers action on its own, but a pattern of complaints against the same number is what regulators use to build a case. Filing one, even for a call that only annoyed you, adds to that record.

You can look up a number to see whether others have already reported it.

One caveat

This is a general explanation, not legal advice. If you're considering a TCPA claim over a specific call, talk to an attorney; the exact rules have exceptions and have been revised by court decisions and FCC rulings since 1991.