Hello, it’s spam: How to stop robocalls and telemarketing calls

“We’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty”—a robocall so common it’s been memefied. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Texas Attorney General’s office have been going after robocalls and telemarketing scams for years, but these calls are still pervasive. Texans who wish to reduce the number of unwanted calls they receive should sign up for both the Texas No-Call List and the National Do Not Call Registry. If you’re still receiving unwanted calls, file a complaint with the FCC, the Texas attorney general, and/or the Public Utility Commission of Texas. And if you want to take matters into your own hands, federal and state law provides for a private cause of action in certain circumstances.

Texas No-Call List

In 2001, Texas became one of the first states in the country to adopt a do-not-call list.[1] The Texas Telemarking Disclosure and Privacy Act (TTDPA)[2] requires the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to maintain a statewide no-call list of Texas consumers who don’t want to receive telemarketing calls or other unsolicited calls. Unsolicited text messages are also covered by the TTDPA’s No-Call List.[3]

Registration for the Texas No-Call List is free. To register a phone number for the Texas No-Call List, visit TexasNoCall.com (ironically, the website design is so outdated that most people probably think the list itself is a scam).

The Texas No-Call list is updated and published on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 of each year. Within 60 days of when your phone number first appears on the published list, telemarketers must stop calling your number.[4]

A registration on the Texas No-Call List is valid for only three years, and the PUC will send you an email notification when your three-year registration is about to expire.  

While registering your phone number with the Texas No-Call List will reduce the number of unwanted calls you receive, it likely won’t eliminate them completely. That’s because companies are still allowed to solicit you over the phone if:

• the call is to made to collect a debt;

• the call is made by a “state licensee”[5] and: (1) the call is not made by an automated telephone dialing system, (2) the solicited transaction is not completed until a face-to-face sales presentation by the seller occurs and the consumer is not required to pay or authorize payment until after the presentation, and (3) the consumer has not informed the telemarketer that the consumer does not wish to receive a telemarketing call from the telemarketer (commonly known as the “state licensee exemption”);[6]

• you have an established business relationship with the caller; or

• you have terminated a business relationship with the caller but the call is made before the later of (1) the publication date of the first Texas No-Call List in which the consumer's telephone number appears or (2) the first anniversary of the date of termination.[7]

Private litigants, the PUC, the Texas attorney general, and Texas licensing agencies are authorized to enforce the TTDPA.[8] Violations of the TTDPA may also constitute violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, which is enforceable by the Texas attorney general and/or private litigants.

According to a 2020 report by the Texas attorney general, for the time period of September 1, 2018-August 31, 2020, the Texas attorney general received 102 consumer complaints alleging that a telemarketer violated the TTDPA by calling a consumer on the Texas No-Call List. An additional 1157 consumers complained about receiving telemarketing calls and/or robocalls without specifying that they were on the Texas No-Call List. The attorney general also received 72 complaints about unsolicited text messages. During the same reporting period, the Texas attorney general filed two new lawsuits alleging violations of the TTDPA.

National Do Not Call Registry

A federal no-call list was created in 2003 and is maintained by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commissions (FCC).[9]

Following the creation of the National Do Not Call Registry, most states eliminated their own lists and relied on the registry maintained by the FTC and FCC. Texas is one of the few states that continues to maintain its own registry. The Texas Attorney General’s Office has recommended that the state adopt the relevant portion of the National Do Not Call Registry instead of continuing to maintain a separate Texas No-Call List.

Registration for the National Do Not Call List is free. To register a phone number for the Texas No-Call List, visit DoNotCall.gov. A registration on the federal list never expires. 

Like the Texas law, there are some exemptions to the federal do-not-call rules. Because of the limits to FTC’s authority, the National Do Not Call Registry does not apply to political/campaign calls or calls from non-profits and charities (but the registry does cover telemarketers calling on behalf of charities). Also, calls from legitimate “survey” organizations are not covered because they are not offering to sell anything to consumers. Finally, calls are permitted from companies with which you have done or sought to do business (e.g., a company can call you up to 18 months after you last did business with it).

While political/campaign calls and texts are exempt from the National Do Not Call List requirements, the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) contains specific rules they must follow.

The federal fines for prohibited telemarketing calls can be substantial. In March 2021, the FCC fined Texas-based telemarketers $225 million—the largest fine in FCC history—for transmitting approximately 1 billion robocalls, many of them illegally spoofed, to sell short-term, limited duration health insurance plans. The robocalls falsely claimed to offer health insurance plans from well-known health insurance companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield and Cigna.

What to do if you’re still receiving unwanted calls

Despite the existence of the Texas No-Call List and National Do Not Call Registry, Texans still received an estimated 514 million robocalls in June 2022 alone. 

Not every unwanted call is illegal. Even if you’ve registered for both the federal and state no-call lists, there are some circumstances where a company can still legally solicit you over the phone (e.g., under Texas law, your debt collectors can still call you).

If you’ve signed up for both no-call lists and are still receiving unwanted calls, you can file a complaint with the Texas Attorney General, the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and/or the Federal Trade Commission.

The Texas law (TTDPA) provides for a private cause of action under certain circumstances. A consumer on the no-call list that is called by a telemarketer more than once can file suit if three requirements are met:

(1) the consumer has notified the telemarketer of the alleged violation;

(2) not later than the 30th day after the date of the call, the consumer files with the PUC, the attorney general, or a state agency that licenses the person making the call a verified complaint stating the relevant facts surrounding the violation; and

(3) the PUC, attorney general, or state agency receiving the complaint does not initiate an administrative action or a civil enforcement action, as appropriate, against the telemarketer named in the complaint before the 121st day after the date the complaint is filed.

If a consumer files suit against a telemarketer and the court finds that the defendant willfully or knowingly violated the TTDPA, the court may award damages in an amount not to exceed $500 for each violation.

The federal law (TCPA) also provides for a private cause of action. A person or entity may file suit based on a violation of the TCPA to enjoin such violation and/or recovery damages. A private litigant can recover their actual monetary loss from a TCPA violation, or receive $500 in damages for each such violation, whichever is greater. If the court finds that the defendant willfully or knowingly violated the TCPA, the court has discretion to increase the amount of the award to an amount equal to not more than 3 times the actual monetary loss from such violation or $1,500 in damages for each violation.[10]

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[1] Report of the Texas Attorney General Pursuant to the Texas Telemarketing Disclosure and Privacy Act, Chapter 304 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code, December 2020.

[2] Tex. Bus. & Com. Code §§ 304.053-304.259.

[3] Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 304.002(10) (“telephone call” is defined to include text messages).

[4] Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 304.052.

[5] Under the TTDPA, a “state licensee” means a person licensed by a state agency under a law of this state that requires the person to obtain a license as a condition of engaging in a profession or business.” Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 304.002(7).

[6] The Texas Attorney General’s Office has recommended that the Texas Legislature remove the state licensee exemption from the TTDPA, because there is no similar exemption in federal law and maintaining the exemption in state law only causes confusion.

[7] Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 304.004.

[8] Tex. Bus. & Com. Code §§ 304.251-304.259.

[9] See Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227.

[10] 47 U.S.C.A. § 227(b)(3).