About this reference

TCPA Primer explains the Telephone Consumer Protection Act the way a good encyclopedia entry would: history, the statute section by section, the FCC rules, the courts, and the state analogues. It is written for in-house counsel, compliance leads and business owners, and every entry links to its primary source so the reader can check it.

Scope

The site explains the federal statute, the FCC's implementing rules, the principal court decisions, and the main state analogues, at the level of a careful encyclopedia entry. It is written for in-house counsel, compliance staff, and business owners who want to understand the law before they act on it. It does not explain how to respond to a particular letter and it does not assess, rate or recommend any firm that sends or defends claims.

Not legal advice

Nothing here is legal advice and nothing creates a relationship with any lawyer. The law described changes, sometimes quickly, and its application depends on facts. Applying the law to a particular set of facts is work for a lawyer admitted in the relevant state.

Sources and method

Every statement of law is drawn from the text of 47 U.S.C. § 227, the rules at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200, the FCC orders cited in the entries, published court opinions, and the state statutes named. Where a point is unsettled, the entry says so. Where a case or figure could not be verified from a primary source, it was left out rather than estimated. Entries were last reviewed on 2026-11-03.

Contents

1. History of the TCPA, 1991 to 2025
2. What 47 U.S.C. § 227 actually says
3. Autodialers and the ATDS definition after Duguid
4. Prerecorded, artificial and AI-generated voice calls
5. The National Do Not Call Registry and company-specific lists
6. Text messages under the TCPA
7. Consent: express, express written, and revocation
8. Damages and remedies under the TCPA
9. State telemarketing laws: Florida, Oklahoma, Washington, Maryland, Texas
10. Key TCPA cases