Connecticut Telemarketing Act (Conn. Gen. Stat. 42-284 to 42-289, as substantially rewritten by Public Act 23-98)

No telemarketer may make, or cause to be made, a telephonic sales call to a consumer without the consumer's prior express written consent. In addition, no telemarketer may make a telephonic sales call for a marketing or sales solicitation to a consumer's mobile telephone number unless that number is not on the state's quarterly “no sales solicitation calls” listing or the telemarketer has the consumer's prior express written consent.

A telephonic sales call reaches a live voice call, an automated dialing system, a recorded message, soundboard technology, an over-the-top message, or a text or media message. A text or media message does not include electronic mail sent to an electronic mail address.

A telephonic sales call does not include a call or message answering the consumer's own request or inquiry, including one about an item the consumer bought from the telemarketer in the preceding twelve months, a nonprofit's call to its bona fide or active members, a call limited to polling or soliciting votes or an opinion, a business-to-business contact, a call made with the consumer's prior express written consent, a call primarily about an existing debt or contract not yet completed, a call to an existing customer who has not told the telemarketer they no longer want such calls, or a call for a religious, charitable, political or other noncommercial purpose.

Prior express written consent is a written agreement, signed by the consumer, that discloses the means by which the telemarketer will contact the consumer and the telephone number to be contacted, and clearly and conspicuously authorizes advertisements or telemarketing messages by those means. A telephonic sales call not otherwise prohibited is limited to between nine a.m. and eight p.m. local time.

The caller must disclose their identity, the purpose of the call and, if any, the entity on whose behalf they call, within ten seconds after the call begins. The caller must also ask at the beginning whether the consumer wishes to continue, end the call or be removed from the caller's list, and must end the call within ten seconds of the consumer indicating a wish to end it.

If the consumer asks not to receive future calls or to be removed from the list, the caller must confirm the removal, end the call within ten seconds, not call that consumer again at any associated number, and not give, sell, or receive value for the consumer's name, number or other personally identifying information. No telemarketer may install or use a device or service to circumvent a consumer's caller identification, or transmit inaccurate or misleading caller identification information.

A violation of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act's implementing rules or the Telemarketing Sales Rule against calling a number on the National Do Not Call Registry or a number that has requested no further calls from a particular entity is also a violation of these sections.

Separately, no person, including but not limited to a telemarketer, may knowingly, or while avoiding knowledge, provide substantial assistance or support to the initiator of a voice communication or telephonic sales call that enables the initiator to initiate, originate, route or transmit it, if the person knows or avoids knowing that the initiator is engaged, or intends to engage, in fraud or a violation of these sections or the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act.

This anti-assistance duty does not prohibit designing, manufacturing or distributing a component, product or technology with a commercially significant use beyond circumventing these rules, a provider offering general Internet access, or a terminating network provider completing a call.

A violation of these sections is an unfair or deceptive trade practice under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, section 42-110b, whose private action lets a person who suffers an ascertainable loss of money or property recover actual damages, with punitive damages and equitable relief in the court's discretion. In addition to any penalty under that Act, a person liable under section 42-288a is subject to a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars for each violation.

A telecommunications company may call its own existing customer without charge about an existing debt, an existing contract, a federally authorized wireless emergency alert, or a prior customer-initiated service request. Public Act 24-75 later broadened the mobile-number consent duty from calls made “for the purpose of marketing, selling or soliciting sales of consumer goods” to any “telephonic sales call for the purpose of a marketing or sales solicitation of consumer goods or services.”