Telemarketing rules changed on four fronts in 2026. The FCC rewrote its opt-out rules, effective 30 days after Federal Register publication, and Pennsylvania, Virginia and Oregon tightened their telemarketing laws. Two regional appeals courts narrowed lawsuits over texts and written consent; the FTC held its $53,088 penalty and raised Do Not Call Registry fees.
In This Article
This update covers 2026 changes under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and state law. Two 2025 carryovers get one short section. Each section states what changed, what it means for a campaign already dialing, and what to update first.
Two dates set the order of work. Pennsylvania’s amended law takes effect October 18, and the FCC’s opt-out rules start 30 days after Federal Register publication. Pennsylvania’s date comes first. The TCPA compliance consulting service page describes the ongoing monitoring that flags each of these changes against active campaigns. The baseline controls still apply. The 2026 TCPA compliance checklist covers the seven standing controls underneath all of this, from consent records to five-year retention.
TCPA compliance changes in 2026, in deadline order
Seven TCPA compliance changes need decisions in 2026. Five are already in effect, Pennsylvania’s law starts October 18, and FCC 26-67 starts 30 days after Federal Register publication.
Change | In effect | What to update |
|---|---|---|
Virginia SB 1339: text opt-outs | January 1, 2026 | Keep STOP and UNSUBSCRIBE replies suppressed for at least 10 years |
Oregon HB 3865: hours, frequency, texts | January 1, 2026 | 8 a.m.–8 p.m. window; no more than three solicitations per 24 hours |
Bradford v. Sovereign Pest Control (5th Cir.) | Decided February 25, 2026 | Nothing for multi-state lists; keep collecting written consent |
Steidinger v. Blackstone (7th Cir.) | Decided July 14, 2026 | Keep scrubbing text lists against the registry |
FTC Do Not Call Registry fees, fiscal 2027 | October 1, 2026 | Budget $85 per area code, $23,425 for all area codes |
Pennsylvania Act 47 of 2026 (SB 992) | October 18, 2026 | 9 a.m.–7 p.m. window; block Sundays and legal holidays |
FCC 26-67 opt-out rules | 30 days after Federal Register publication | Choose an opt-out method; tag informational message categories |
Read the right-hand column as a work order. Most of it is configuration: per-state calling windows, a suppression file holding Virginia opt-outs for a decade, and message categories in the texting platform. One item reaches back into old records. Pennsylvania’s written-consent standard for robocalls applies to consent already in your database, not only to new forms.
What did the FCC change about TCPA opt-outs in 2026?
The FCC’s September 30, 2026 order, FCC 26-67, lets callers designate one exclusive TCPA opt-out method once it takes effect. Informational opt-outs can stay limited to their category, but a telemarketing opt-out still ends all telemarketing from that caller.
Today’s rule sits at 47 CFR § 64.1200(a)(10), the revocation provision as currently codified and in force since April 11, 2025. It sets three terms. Consumers can revoke by any reasonable means, callers cannot designate an exclusive one, and every request must be honored within 10 business days. One provision never started at all. Revoke-all, where one opt-out cancels every robocall and robotext from a company, sat behind a bureau waiver until January 31, 2027. The new order replaces it.
Under FCC 26-67, a caller can name one of three methods as the only way to revoke, if every message discloses it:
- An automated opt-out mechanism offered during the call.
- A reply text using any of seven standard words: stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel or unsubscribe.
- A designated phone number or website for opt-out requests.
The designation has teeth. A caller that makes it no longer has to process requests that arrive by any other route. Without it, any reasonable means still counts. Covington’s comparison of the released order against the September draft flags one clarification in the final text. Disclosure can stay short. A message can disclose a single keyword, such as STOP, while the platform still honors all seven.
The second change is scope. An opt-out sent in reply to an informational message, such as an appointment reminder, can cover only that category. Telemarketing opt-outs work differently. A STOP sent in reply to telemarketing ends all future telemarketing robocalls and robotexts from that caller, though informational messages can continue. Live-agent sales calls run on a separate track. Company-specific do-not-call requests under § 64.1200(d) are still honored within 10 business days and kept for five years.
For a campaign team, this means platform settings. Decide whether to designate an exclusive method or keep accepting any reasonable request, then write that disclosure into every script and template. Then tag each informational stream separately. Reminders, account alerts and delivery notices each become a category, so a STOP to one leaves the others running. A STOP to marketing still suppresses all marketing. The TCPA compliance audit described on the service page reviews scripts, required disclosures and suppression file management, then ranks each gap by risk.
This failure is already on the record. HIPAA Journal’s report on the Kaiser Permanente settlement covers claims that marketing texts kept arriving after STOP replies. Kaiser agreed to pay up to $10.5 million. The TCPA penalties and enforcement post tables it beside the other 2025 and 2026 settlements and FTC civil penalty cases. Nothing in the 2026 order changes that outcome, because an exclusive method helps only when the reply reaches every sending system.
The control is one suppression file. Voice and text share it, and every opt-out writes to it at capture rather than in a nightly batch. On a consent-management program we run, agents read the consent disclaimer word for word and every record carries its opt-out and SMS-consent status. The status travels with the number.
Which states changed their telemarketing laws in 2026?
Three states changed telemarketing laws for 2026: Virginia and Oregon on January 1, and Pennsylvania on October 18. All three now cover marketing texts, and Pennsylvania and Oregon narrowed their daily calling windows.
Pennsylvania’s change is the largest and the nearest. The Pennsylvania General Assembly’s page for Senate Bill 992 carries the bill history and every printed version of the text. The governor signed it July 20. Act 47 of 2026 takes effect 90 days later, on October 18, and reaches calls, texts, voicemails and ringless voicemails alike. The clock narrows sharply. From that date, solicitations to Pennsylvania numbers cannot go out before 9 a.m., after 7 p.m., on Sundays or on legal holidays.
From October 18, solicitations to Pennsylvania numbers get 60 calling hours a week, down from the 91 the federal window allows.
Consent rules change too. Robocalls to Pennsylvania numbers need prior express written consent, and the law names seven text opt-out keywords. The hiring company shares the liability. Contacts made with prior express written consent, or within a 12-month established business relationship, fall outside the definition of solicitation entirely. That removes registration and quiet hours.
The exposure sits in one dialer setting. A dialer window set once, at the federal 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., keeps placing evening and Sunday solicitations after October 18. Every dashboard will read normal.
Virginia and Oregon moved in January. Virginia’s bill record for SB 1339 shows enactment as Chapter 626, effective January 1, 2026. A STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE reply to a solicitation text must now be honored for at least 10 years. That doubles the federal period. Oregon’s enrolled text of HB 3865 adds texts to the definition of telephone solicitation and limits solicitations to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Solicitations cap at three per 24 hours. Contacts within an established business relationship, meaning a transaction in the prior 18 months, fall outside both limits.
State | In effect | Calling window | What else changes |
|---|---|---|---|
Pennsylvania (Act 47 of 2026) | October 18, 2026 | 9 a.m.–7 p.m.; no Sundays or legal holidays | Texts, voicemail and ringless voicemail covered; written consent for robocalls; seven text opt-out keywords; hiring company shares liability |
Virginia (SB 1339) | January 1, 2026 | 8 a.m.–9 p.m. | STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE replies honored for at least 10 years |
Oregon (HB 3865) | January 1, 2026 | 8 a.m.–8 p.m. | Texts covered; no more than three solicitations per 24 hours outside an established business relationship |
Federal baseline | In force | 8 a.m.–9 p.m. | Applies everywhere; state rules stack on top |
Set the window per record, not per campaign. Capture the recipient’s state at consent, and apply the stricter window wherever address and area code disagree. Pennsylvania records need Sunday and holiday blocks. Extend suppression retention to 10 years so Virginia opt-outs never age out of the file. Count Oregon’s cap across channels. Three attempts in 24 hours means calls and texts combined, so the rule belongs in the dialer’s attempt logic.
Multi-state lead generation lists feel this first. The B2B lead generation service page lists the DNC scrubbing, call-time restrictions and state-level checks each campaign runs through. The rest of the map is reference. The state-by-state mini-TCPA reference guide covers whose law governs across state lines, with a table of twelve state statutes.
Three states changed their calling rules this year
A campaign compliance audit maps each program’s state footprint against current calling windows, opt-out retention and consent records. Gaps come back ranked by exposure. Most audits take 5–10 business days.
Are text messages still covered by TCPA do-not-call rules after Steidinger?
Yes for compliance, narrower for lawsuits. FCC do-not-call rules still cover marketing texts, but after Steidinger, consumers in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin cannot sue over texts under § 227(c)(5).
Texts and the do-not-call lawsuit right
The Seventh Circuit’s opinion in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services holds that § 227(c)(5) does not reach text messages. The reasoning is historical. In 1991 a telephone call meant a voice call, so the TCPA’s do-not-call lawsuit right covers voice alone. The facts were ordinary. Plaintiffs alleged marketing texts kept arriving after they replied STOP or joined the National Do Not Call Registry. The ruling binds three states only. FCC enforcement and the autodialer provisions are untouched, and the district court declined to hear the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act claim. That claim survives elsewhere.
The Ninth Circuit’s January opinion in Howard v. Republican National Committee treats a text as a call under § 227(b). It reads a different subsection entirely.
Written consent in the Fifth Circuit
The Fifth Circuit’s opinion in Bradford v. Sovereign Pest Control holds that the TCPA requires only prior express consent, oral or written. That covers telemarketing robocalls too. Decided February 25, it sets aside the FCC’s written-consent rule in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. One Supreme Court case underlies both. The Supreme Court’s June 2025 opinion in McLaughlin v. McKesson holds that district courts are not bound by the FCC’s reading of the statute. It builds on Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the 2024 decision that ended Chevron deference to agency readings of statutes. The result is circuit-by-circuit TCPA law.
Neither ruling changes multi-state practice. Steidinger narrows one lawsuit route in three states, while Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida name texts in their own statutes. Bradford leaves state consent rules intact. Pennsylvania’s new written-consent rule applies to Pennsylvania recipients regardless of what the Fifth Circuit says about federal law. Run one national standard. Scrub text lists against the registry exactly like call lists, and keep collecting written consent everywhere. The SMS and text outreach compliance post walks through brand and campaign registration, consent and opt-out handling for texting programs. Strict records clear every lower bar. The prior express written consent guide covers the four elements a written agreement needs and the record a court will ask for.
Did the FTC update the Telemarketing Sales Rule or its penalties in 2026?
The Telemarketing Sales Rule’s conduct requirements stayed put. The FTC held its civil penalty at $53,088 per violation in 2026 and raised National Do Not Call Registry fees for fiscal 2027
$23,425 for nationwide National Do Not Call Registry access in fiscal 2027, up from $22,626.
Fees reset every fiscal year. The FTC’s announcement of 2027 telemarketer fees lists each fee and its October 1 start date. One area code costs $85, up $3. A half-year area code costs $43, nationwide access costs $23,425, and the first five area codes stay free.
Unpaid access carries real exposure. The FTC’s Do Not Call Q&A for telemarketers and sellers states a company without paid access can be liable for any telemarketing call. That includes numbers not on the registry. Picture a vendor onboarding a new client. It dials under an existing client’s account, so every call for the new client goes out without paid access. Calendar the renewal beside the 31-day registry download, and confirm each seller you dial for holds its own subscription account. Access is bought per seller.
The penalty froze for a mechanical reason. Agencies adjust civil penalties from October consumer-price data, and the 2025 government shutdown left no October 2025 figure. OMB cancelled the 2026 adjustment. The FTC’s Federal Register notice on civil penalty inflation adjustments confirms the agency will keep applying 2025 levels. The maximum stays $53,088 until January.
What changed in 10DLC compliance for 2026?
No federal rule changed 10DLC compliance in 2026. 10DLC is a carrier registration framework, and its 2026 changes came as higher per-message fees and audits after approval.
Bandwidth’s carrier surcharge table lists each carrier’s per-message pass-through fee on registered 10DLC traffic, with effective dates.
- T-Mobile set its outbound SMS pass-through fee at $0.0045 per message on January 19.
- Verizon raised outbound SMS to $0.0045 and MMS to $0.007 per message on May 1.
- Verizon set outbound SMS at $0.005 from October 1.
- Approved campaigns can now be audited after approval, so a registration that drifts from what you actually send can be filtered later.
Volume programs feel the surcharges first. The fees sit on top of Campaign Registry charges and apply per message, so the bill grows with volume. At one million Verizon messages a month, the October increase adds $500 to the monthly bill. Drift is the risk to manage. Re-check the brand record, the use-case description and the opt-in URL whenever the program changes. Annual checks miss it.
Which 2025 changes still shape TCPA compliance in 2026?
Two 2025 changes still drive 2026 TCPA decisions. Texas brought marketing texts under its telemarketing law on September 1, 2025, weeks after the FCC ordered the vacated one-to-one consent rule deleted.
Texas is the heavier carryover. The enrolled text of Texas SB 140 redefines a telephone solicitation to include text, graphic and image messages. The Senate Research Center’s bill analysis explains why. A court had held that a text-only seller was not a telemarketer under the old wording, and the amendment closes that gap. Violations become deceptive trade practices. That gives consumers a private right of action under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, with its own damages and fees.
Consent changes the registration question. The Texas Secretary of State’s registration FAQ states that businesses texting with prior consumer consent need not register under Chapter 302. Sellers without consent or another exemption register first, with a $200 fee and a $10,000 security. The exemption follows the consent, not the sender. An unregistered seller that texts a purchased list, or a number reassigned since consent, is sending telephone solicitations with no registration behind them. Keep the consent record for every Texas number, and register if any program texts purchased leads.
The second carryover removed a rule. The Eleventh Circuit’s opinion in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC vacated the one-to-one consent rule in January 2025, days before it took effect. The court read the statute itself, citing Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, and the FCC ordered the rule text deleted in July 2025. Multi-seller forms remain lawful federally. Each form must still clearly authorize the seller doing the calling, and Pennsylvania now applies its own written-consent test. Check purchased leads against both.
What TCPA compliance changes are still pending for 2027?
Three federal TCPA items remain open heading into 2027, and none of them binds callers yet. FCC 26-67 awaits its effective date; the companion opt-out proposal and the March offshore call center proposal await final orders.
- Federal Register publication of FCC 26-67. The opt-out rules take effect 30 days later. Comments on the companion proposal are due the same day.
- The companion proposal. It asks whether to cut the processing deadline from 10 business days to 7 and require two-way texting. It also asks about a one-step revoke-all option and how revocations apply across affiliates and divisions.
- Offshore call centers. The FCC’s onshoring proposal, summarized in the Federal Register proposes caps on offshore call-center share, disclosures and a right to reach a U.S.-based agent, plus standards for foreign-originated calls and texts. FCC 26-16 drew reply comments through June 22, with no order since.
Build to the stricter version now. A suppression pipeline that clears opt-outs within seven business days already meets today’s 10-business-day limit. Texting works the same way. A program that accepts a STOP reply on every message is ready if two-way texting becomes mandatory. Offshore vendors carry their own question: the proposal targets foreign-originated calls and texts, so know which of yours originate abroad.
This is operational guidance, not legal advice. AnswerNet is not a law firm, so confirm current text with qualified TCPA counsel before changing consent language or calling windows.
Frequently asked questions
What changed in TCPA compliance in 2026?
The FCC adopted FCC 26-67 on September 30, letting callers designate an exclusive opt-out method once it takes effect. Pennsylvania, Virginia and Oregon tightened state rules. The Seventh Circuit cut off text-based do-not-call lawsuits in its three states; the Fifth Circuit held the statute requires no written consent. The FTC held its penalty at $53,088.
Under the FCC’s new rules, can we make customers opt out only by replying STOP?
Yes, once FCC 26-67 takes effect. Every text must disclose that reply as the opt-out method, and the disclosure can name a single word. All seven words still count. Stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel and unsubscribe must be honored, and until the rules take effect any reasonable means still works.
Which states changed their telemarketing laws in 2026?
Pennsylvania, Virginia and Oregon. Pennsylvania’s Act 47 takes effect October 18, 2026, limiting solicitations to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and barring Sundays and legal holidays. Virginia text opt-outs now last 10 years. Oregon now limits solicitations to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and three per 24 hours.
What do I need to change in my dialer and texting settings for the 2026 state laws?
Set calling windows per record, using the recipient’s state at consent and the stricter window where address and area code disagree. Pennsylvania numbers need 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday and holiday blocks from October 18, 2026. Keep Virginia text opt-outs suppressed for 10 years. Oregon’s three-attempt cap counts calls and texts together.
After the Seventh Circuit’s Steidinger decision, are marketing texts still covered by do-not-call rules?
Yes, for compliance purposes. Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services only removed the TCPA’s do-not-call lawsuit right for texts, and only in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. FCC rules still apply to texts. The FCC can still enforce them, and Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida name texts in their own telemarketing laws.
Model it against your own volumes
The outreach compliance risk calculator takes a monthly call volume and an estimated non-compliance rate. It returns TCPA and TSR exposure together.
