Telemarketer Registration Act

Act 47 of 2026, approved July 20, 2026, rewrote the Telemarketer Registration Act with effect 90 days later, on October 18, 2026; this row describes the Act as that amendment leaves it, and until that date the earlier text applies.

A telemarketer, or the telemarketing business that employs it, must register with the Office of Attorney General at least 30 days before offering consumer goods or services for sale through any medium, with a $50,000 surety bond, and may not initiate or receive a telemarketing call or message with a Pennsylvania subscriber unless registered.

Registration does not apply to a person or business licensed by or registered with a federal or Commonwealth agency acting within that licence, a qualifying catalog seller, a business-to-business seller that has operated for three years under one name with at least half its sales volume in repeat sales, a seller calling its own past purchasers after three years under one name, and others the Act lists, while a business providing telemarketing services to others under the same ownership for less than five years must register regardless.

A telephone solicitation is a call, voicemail, ringless voicemail or text message to a residential, business or wireless subscriber to solicit the sale of consumer goods or services, or to obtain information for that purpose.

The term does not include a call or message made in response to the subscriber's prior express written consent, about an existing debt, contract, payment or performance, to a subscriber with whom the seller or telemarketer has had an established business relationship within the past 12 months, on behalf of an organization tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3), (5) or (8) of the Internal Revenue Code or a congressionally chartered veterans organization, or on behalf of a political candidate or party.

The Act bars a telephone solicitation on a Sunday, on a legal holiday, or after 7 p.m. or before 9 a.m., and one to a subscriber who has said they do not wish to receive solicitations from the seller or telemarketer, which for a text message a reply such as stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel or unsubscribe is enough to say.

A telemarketer may not call a number enrolled on the do-not-call list beginning 30 days after the quarterly list that first contains it, must obtain the list quarterly, and may use it only to remove numbers; written procedures, trained staff, a maintained list and a call made in error together are a defense.

It bars a robocall, an autodialed telephone solicitation delivering a prerecorded or artificial voice, to a residential, business or wireless line without the called party's prior express written consent, unless the call is for emergency purposes or otherwise exempt, and bars any unfair or deceptive practice used to obtain that consent.

Prior express written consent is a signed written agreement, which may use an electronic signature, that names the number, clearly and conspicuously discloses consent to solicitations including a robocall or text message, and states that consent is not a condition of purchase.

A telemarketer that uses robocalls must state at the start of the call how to opt out, offer an automated voice or key-press opt-out within two seconds of identifying the caller and the seller and throughout the call, remove an opting-out number immediately, never require written consent to opt out, and leave a toll-free number reaching that opt-out in any voicemail message.

A telemarketer must disclose promptly the purpose of the call, its name and what it is selling, give the caller's name and that of the person on whose behalf it calls and, on request, a contact number or address, end a solicitation when the called party indicates they want to end it, and may not act to block or falsify its caller identification or to circumvent a subscriber's call-screening product.

The Act also bars using any technology or any synthetic or computer-generated messaging to defraud, deceive or mislead a subscriber, and makes a violation of the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule, of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act's bar on misleading caller identification, or of a Federal Communications Commission caller-identification rule a violation of the Act.

Failing to register is a misdemeanor of the second degree, and a violation of the Act is also a violation of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, whose private action under section 201-9.2 is available to a person who purchases or leases goods or services primarily for personal, family, or household purposes and suffers an ascertainable loss, for actual damages or $100, whichever is greater, which the court may in its discretion treble, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees; the Attorney General may separately investigate and bring its own enforcement action.