Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act and Telemarketing Sales Rule (National Do Not Call Registry)
TSR
Marketing
The TSR bars deceptive and abusive telemarketing and houses the FTC's National Do Not Call Registry. It restricts calls to registered numbers, sets calling hours, limits abandoned calls and robocalls, and requires sellers to pay for registry access.
- Where
- Federal
- Citation
- 15 U.S.C. 6101-6108; 16 CFR Part 310
- Status
- In force
- In force since
- 1994-08-16
- Last amended
- 2025-10-01
- Enforced by
- Federal Trade Commission; state attorneys general (15 U.S.C. 6103); private persons with over $50,000 in damages (15 U.S.C. 6104)
- People can sue
- Limited
- Penalties
- Violations are FTC rule violations: civil penalties up to $53,088 per violation (16 CFR 1.98, inflation-adjusted amount in force since Jan. 17, 2025).
- Applies to
- Sellers and telemarketers conducting interstate telemarketing to consumers
- Inbound tech-support telemarketing (since Jan. 9, 2025)
What a privacy notice must say
- Promptly disclose the seller's identity and that the purpose is a sale in outbound calls.16 CFR 310.4(d)
Practices it requires
- Do not initiate outbound telemarketing calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry unless the seller has express written agreement or an established business relationship.16 CFR 310.4(b)(1)(iii)(B)
- Do not call residences before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. local time.16 CFR 310.4(c)
- Do not abandon calls (connect to a sales representative within 2 seconds of the greeting) and follow prerecorded-message restrictions.16 CFR 310.4(b)(1)(iv)-(v)
Registration
- Pay the annual fee and access the Registry for each area code called before telemarketing (fees updated effective Oct. 1 each year).16 CFR 310.8
Sources
- Official text
- 16 CFR Part 310 (eCFR)
- 15 U.S.C. 6102 (OLRC)
- FTC, Telemarketing Sales Rule, 89 FR 99069 (Dec. 10, 2024)
- FTC, Telemarketing Sales Rule Fees, 91 FR 54947 (Aug. 26, 2026)
Checked against these sources on 2026-09-25 by research agent (Claude), primary sources.
Unverified: effective_date is the Telemarketing Act's enactment date; the original TSR effective date (Dec. 31, 1995) was not verified | State AG and private action provisions (15 U.S.C. 6103-6104) were not fetched | A further fee update takes effect Oct. 1, 2026
Research reference, not legal advice.