TCPA Statutes and Regulations: Directory of Official Sources

Federal statutes

Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), 47 U.S.C. § 227

The fundamental federal statute governing robocalls, autodialers, prerecorded and artificial voice calls, telephone solicitations, the Do Not Call framework and junk faxes. It also includes the private right of action and state attorney general enforcement provisions.

• Official text (Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives): https://uscode.house.gov/us/usc/t47/s227/
• Unofficial, easy-to-read copy with notes (Legal Information Institute): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/227
• See our TCPA Statute research guide.

Original enactment, Pub. L. 102-243 (December 20, 1991), 105 Stat. 2394

Useful for Congress's findings and for reading the statute as first enacted.

• GovInfo (U.S. Government Publishing Office): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-105/pdf/STATUTE-105-Pg2394.pdf

TRACED Act, Pub. L. 116-105 (December 30, 2019)

The Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act amended § 227, including the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) forfeiture authority and new subsections on information sharing and robocall blocking.

• GovInfo: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-116publ105/pdf/PLAW-116publ105.pdf

Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, 15 U.S.C. § 6101 and following

The statute under which the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued the Telemarketing Sales Rule.

• Cornell Legal Information Institute: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/6101

Federal regulations

FCC TCPA rules, 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200

The FCC's rules implementing the TCPA: consent, revocation, calling times, Do Not Call, prerecorded message disclosures, the reassigned numbers safe harbor and call blocking.

• Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-64/subpart-L/section-64.1200
• See our FCC Rules research guide.

FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), 16 C.F.R. Part 310

A separate federal rule enforced by the FTC. It also governs the National Do Not Call Registry, calling hours and required disclosures in telemarketing calls.

• eCFR: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-310

A note about the eCFR: it is updated continuously but is an editorial compilation and not the legal edition. The official annual edition of the Code of Federal Regulations and the daily Federal Register are published on GovInfo.

Federal Register

Final rules, proposed rules and many effective dates are published in the Federal Register. A new FCC rule typically does not go into effect until some set time after publication, so this is where you should look to confirm if a rule is in force.

• FederalRegister.gov: https://www.federalregister.gov/
• GovInfo Federal Register collection: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/fr

FCC orders and dockets

FCC orders are published in the Electronic Document Management System (EDOCS) and the filings for each proceeding are aggregated in the Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). See Following FCC TCPA Proceedings for the main docket numbers and how to search them.

• Example order PDF location: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-24A1.pdf

Court decisions

• Supreme Court of the United States, opinions and dockets: https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docket.aspx
• Federal appellate and district courts, official records information (U.S. Courts): https://www.uscourts.gov/court-records
• Our case pages summarize key decisions and link to each opinion.

Consumer tools run by the government

• National Do Not Call Registry (FTC): https://www.donotcall.gov/
• Report fraud and unwanted calls to the FTC: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/
• Reassigned Numbers Database (established by the FCC): https://www.reassigned.us/

State law

Many states have their own telemarketing and telephone solicitation laws, and those laws are not preempted simply because federal law exists (see 47 U.S.C. § 227(f)). Use each state's official legislature website for the current text. Our guide to state telemarketing laws explains the main differences.