United StatesTelemarketing Sales Rule
16 CFR Part 310; 15 U.S.C. 6101-6108
In force.
A telephone contact rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Prohibition, Consent, Retention
What it requires
- Before an outbound telemarketing call to a residential number, screen it against the National Do Not Call Registry and your own do-not-call list, and do not call a number on either.NIST Privacy FrameworkCT.PO-P3
- Do not abandon more than 3% of answered outbound calls in a calling campaign measured over 30 days, where a call is abandoned if not connected to a sales representative within two seconds of the called person's completed greeting.no control in the NIST Privacy Framework
- Do not deliver a prerecorded telemarketing message to induce a purchase or a charitable contribution without the recipient's prior signed written agreement to receive prerecorded calls from that seller, obtained separately from any purchase requirement.NIST Privacy FrameworkCT.PO-P1
- Keep telemarketing records, including scripts, prerecorded messages, and call logs, for five years.NIST Privacy FrameworkCT.DM-P8
- A person adversely affected by a pattern or practice that violates this Rule may sue you for actual damages once the amount in controversy exceeds $50,000, in addition to Federal Trade Commission enforcement.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text. Also read by: Federal Trade Commission (guidance, recorded ); United States v. DISH Network L.L.C., No. 17-3111 (7th Cir. ) (recorded ).
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CT.PO-P1Policies, processes, and procedures for authorizing data processing (e.g., organizational decisions, individual consent), revoking authorizations, and maintaining authorizations are established and in place.
- CT.PO-P3Policies, processes, and procedures for enabling individuals’ data processing preferences and requests are established and in place.
- CT.DM-P8Audit/log records are determined, documented, implemented, and reviewed in accordance with policy and incorporating the principle of data minimization.
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-005System Acceptance Testing
- AIR-DET-004AI System Observability
- AIR-DET-021Agent Decision Audit and Explainability
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework, and in the NIST Privacy Framework, line by line beside each duty above. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Penalty structure
A Telemarketing Sales Rule violation is treated as a violation of an FTC Act rule on unfair or deceptive acts or practices (15 U.S.C. 6102(c)), which currently carries a civil penalty of up to $53,088 per violation under 15 U.S.C. 45(m)(1)(A), inflation-adjusted. The statute's base figure is a civil penalty of not more than $10,000 for each violation (15 U.S.C. 45(m)(1)(A)); the Federal Trade Commission's notice of states that its civil penalty amounts remain unchanged during 2026, so the 2025 adjusted figure still applies.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per violation unit
- Violation
- Per violation amount
- 53,088
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Federal Trade Commission; State attorneys general and private persons meeting the $50,000 amount-in-controversy threshold may also sue
Settledness
- As of
- Case link
- https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-ca7-17-03111/pdf/USCOURTS-ca7-17-03111-0.pdf
- Guidance link
- https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/complying-telemarketing-sales-rule
- Case citation
- United States v. DISH Network L.L.C., No. 17-3111 (7th Cir. )
- Guidance body
- Federal Trade Commission
- Open questions
- Must a seller coordinate its internal do-not-call list under 16 CFR 310.4(b)(1)(iii)(A) with a third party that places calls for it but does not act as its traditional agent, a question the Seventh Circuit left open in United States v. DISH Network L.L.C.?
- Does a call whose voice is generated by software in real time, with no recording played, 'deliver a prerecorded message' under 16 CFR 310.4(b)(1)(v), so that the seller needs the recipient's express written agreement before placing it?
What this law does
The Federal Trade Commission's Telemarketing Sales Rule requires a seller or telemarketer to screen outbound calls against the National Do Not Call Registry (for which access carries an annual per-area-code fee) and its own do-not-call list, caps abandoned calls, and conditions a prerecorded telemarketing message on the recipient's prior signed written agreement to receive it.
The Federal Trade Commission enforces the Rule as an unfair or deceptive act or practice, with the Federal Trade Commission Act's civil penalty. Separately, 15 U.S.C. 6104 lets a person adversely affected by a pattern or practice of telemarketing that violates the Rule sue for an injunction or damages, but only where the amount in controversy exceeds $50,000 in actual damages for each person affected; the statute gives no fixed per-violation amount, unlike the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)'s private right. The provisions this entry describes came into force on different days.
How courts have read itPremium data
Our analysis of this law draws on 4 court rulings.
What each ruling held, what it means for an app, and whether it still stands are premium data, in the Plus, Pro and Enterprise plans.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app places automated calls.
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