Do Not Call Rules for Small Businesses: A Plain-English Summary
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How we wrote this: A summary based on the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule (16 CFR Part 310), the FCC's call-blocking guidance and the official Do Not Call registry site (linked below). This is general information, not legal advice. States have their own rules, and penalties can be large, so check with counsel before running an outbound calling program.
If you only answer calls, the Do Not Call rules rarely touch you. The moment you or a vendor call people to sell something, they matter. Here's the federal picture in plain English.
Who's covered
The Telemarketing Sales Rule (16 CFR Part 310) applies to telemarketing: calls to induce the purchase of goods or services. Among its exemptions, calls between a telemarketer and a business are generally exempt, except for some deception rules and calls selling nondurable office or cleaning supplies. So the registry mainly concerns calls to consumers.
The FCC also has Do Not Call rules (47 CFR 64.1200), and many states add their own.
The core rule
Under 16 CFR 310.4(b)(1)(iii), you may not make a telemarketing call to someone who:
- has told you not to call them (your company-specific do-not-call list), or
- has a number on the National Do Not Call Registry, unless you have:
- their express written agreement to be called, including the number and their signature, or
- an established business relationship with them, and they haven't asked you to stop.
The established business relationship
The rule (16 CFR 310.2) defines an established business relationship as one based on either:
- the person's purchase, rental or lease of your goods or services, or a financial transaction with you, within the 540 days (about 18 months) before the call, or
- the person's inquiry or application about your goods or services within the 90 days before the call.
Once someone asks you not to call, that request wins, whatever the relationship.
Practical requirements
- Scrub your lists. The rule's safe harbor expects you to use a version of the registry obtained no more than 31 days before each call, and to keep records of your process.
- Keep your own do-not-call list and honor requests.
- Calling hours. Without prior consent, the rule bars telemarketing calls to a person's residence before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. local time at the called person's location.
- Caller ID. The FCC's spoofing page notes that telemarketers must transmit a phone number (and a name if possible) and display a number people can call during business hours to ask not to be called.
- Robocalls and autodialers. The FCC's call blocking guide summarizes the consent rules for prerecorded and autodialed calls and texts. Treat AI-voice calls as prerecorded or artificial voice calls (see our after-hours calls guide).
Access and fees
Sellers and telemarketers get registry data through the official telemarketing registry site. Under 16 CFR 310.8, the annual fee is set per area code, and the first five area codes are free. Many small local businesses calling within a few area codes pay nothing, but check the current figures in the rule. The rule also prohibits sharing the cost of registry access among clients.
A simple compliance routine
- Decide whether your calls are telemarketing at all. The rule targets calls made to induce a purchase, and a call that includes a sales pitch can count even if it starts as something else. When in doubt, ask counsel.
- Record where each lead came from and when, so you can show an established business relationship or written consent.
- Download your area codes from the registry and scrub lists at least every 31 days.
- Keep a company do-not-call list and add every "please don't call" right away.
- Train anyone who calls, including vendors, on hours, caller ID and opt-out requests.
- Keep good caller habits so calls aren't labeled as spam. See why business calls show "Spam Likely".