The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) was signed by the United States Congress in 1991 as Public Law 102-243 by former President Bush, updating the Communications Act of 1934. It is the primary law governing the conduct of telephone solicatation, ie. telemarketing. The TCPA restricts the use of automatic dialing systems, artificial or prerecorded voice messages, and fax machines to send unsolicited advertisements.

The law has important implications for telemarketing firms:

• Solicitors may not call before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., local time.
• The solicitor must maintain a "Do Not Call" (DNC) list, which must be honored for 10 years.
• Solicitors must provide their name, the name of the person or entity on whose behalf the call is being made, and a telephone number or address at which that person or entity may be contacted.
• Calls cannot be made with artificial voices or recordings.
• Solicitors cannot call cellular phones, or any other service in which the recipient is charged for the call. In a related section, unsolicited commercial fax messages are also prohibited.
• Solicitors cannot engage two or more lines of a multi-line business.
• In the event of a violation of the TCPA, individuals are entitled to collect damages directly from a solicitor for $500 to $1,500 or recover actual monetary loss, whichever is higher.

The major limitation of this law that renders it all but ineffective at stopping unsolicited calls is that the consumer must request of each telemarketer to be put onto that telemarketer's do-not-call list. This burden was lifted by the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act's establishment of the National Do Not Call Registry.

See also: telemarketing, autodialer

More Information

• The FCC on unwanted telemarketing calls
• Junkbusters' Guide to US Laws on Telemarketing

Telemarketing | United States federal communications legislation