Text message marketing rules: TCPA, 10DLC and CTIA

The legal layer: the TCPA treats a text as a call

A marketing text to a mobile phone needs prior express written consent. The Supreme Court treats a text to a cell phone as a "call" under the TCPA (Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez), and the FCC's revocation rule names "calls or text messages" directly. That puts autodialed marketing texts under the same consent, hours and revocation rules as autodialed calls. See TCPA explained for the statute itself.

The consent standard sits in 47 CFR 64.1200. Autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing to wireless numbers requires "prior express written consent of the called party." The rule defines that consent as a signed agreement that clearly authorizes the seller. An electronic signature counts where federal law or state contract law accepts it.

Three federal limits apply to every marketing text:

• Consent first, signed or e-signed, naming the seller.
• No solicitation before 8am or after 9pm at the called party's location (64.1200(c)(1)).
• Honor Do Not Call registrations and revocations. A stop request must be honored within 10 business days at most.

Buying a list does not supply consent. The consent must come from the person, to you, for texts. For the list side, see aged leads.

The carrier layer: 10DLC registration

10DLC means 10-digit long code: a standard local phone number used to send application-to-person (A2P) texts. Carriers require the sender to register a brand (who you are) and a campaign (what you send and how people opt in) before messages flow. This is a carrier rule, not a statute.

The Campaign Registry (TCR) describes itself as the backbone of the 10DLC ecosystem, where brands and campaign service providers are verified before they can send. Brands register through a registered provider, and the provider submits campaigns. Twilio's overview says a campaign describes how users opt in, opt out and get help, plus the message purpose, and that registered senders see lower filtering and higher throughput. Unregistered senders "will receive additional carrier fees."

Date caveat: vendor pages report that carriers began blocking unregistered traffic in early 2025, but they give different dates (12/01/2024, 02/01/2025, 02/03/2025). I could not confirm any date on a carrier page, so treat the date as unconfirmed. Register before you send. Fees are published by your provider and change; none are quoted here.

The industry layer: CTIA Messaging Principles

CTIA is the wireless industry trade group. Its Messaging Principles and Best Practices (May 2023 edition) are voluntary, but carriers use them to judge traffic. Where the TCPA and CTIA differ, follow the stricter one.

CTIA topic	What the May 2023 document says
Marketing consent	Obtain express written consent to receive marketing messages (section 5.1)
Consent is not transferable	An opt-in applies only to the campaign and sender it was obtained for (5.1.2.2)
Lists	Do not use opt-in lists that were rented, sold or shared (5.1.4)
Opt-out	Honor opt-out at any time by text, phone or email. STOP wording standard. Also act on stop, end, unsubscribe, cancel, quit, "please opt me out." Send one final confirmation, then nothing (5.1.3)
Links	If you use a URL shortener, use one dedicated to your exclusive use. Linked sites must identify the owner (5.3.2)
Shared numbers	Sharing one number among several senders may require special arrangements with the provider, and every sender on it should be documented (5.5.1)
Recurring programs	Confirmation message with program name, help contact, opt-out, frequency and any fees (5.1.2.1)

State overlays

States add hours, consent and damages rules. Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and Washington are the ones checked against statute text for this page. Other states follow the federal floor unless their own statute says more.

State	Text rule	Hours	Damages	Cite
Federal	Text is a call; written consent	8am to 9pm	$500, up to 3x if willful	47 CFR 64.1200; 47 U.S.C. 227
Florida	"Telephonic sales call" includes text message; automated system needs written consent; suit over texts needs a STOP reply and 15 more days of texts if no consent	8am to 8pm for solicitation calls; statute says calls, not texts	Actual damages or $500, up to 3x if willful	Fla. Stat. 501.059, 501.616
Oklahoma	Consent defined to cover call, text or voicemail; automated system needs written consent	8am to 8pm; max 3 solicitation calls per 24 hours on one subject	Actual damages or $500, up to 3x	15 O.S. 775C.2 to 775C.6 (effective 11/01/2022)
Washington	Commercial texts to a resident's cell phone barred unless the person clearly and affirmatively consented in advance	8am to 8pm for telephone solicitor calls	$100 or actual damages per text (19.190.040, amended 2026); at least $1,000 per violation for repeated call-statute violations	RCW 19.190.060, 19.190.070, 19.190.040; 80.36.390
Texas	SB 140 adds text or graphic messages to the "telephone solicitation" definition in Bus. & Com. Code ch. 302 and makes ch. 304 and 305 violations enforceable as deceptive trade practices	None in SB 140	Through the Deceptive Trade Practices Act; no fixed amount in the bill	SB 140, effective 09/01/2025

Read the limits carefully. Florida's hours rule (501.616(6)), Oklahoma's hours rule and Washington's (80.36.390) all say "calls." No court ruling applying them to texts was checked for this page. Federal law already treats a text as a call, so the safe course is to treat the 8pm limit as binding on texts.

Quiet hours and the single policy that clears all of it

Quiet hours are set by the recipient's location, not yours. Use the time zone of the area code only as a guess, since mobile numbers travel. A single policy removes the guesswork.

1. Send no marketing text without a signed or e-signed opt-in that names your company, the number and the kind of messages.
2. Send only 8am to 8pm in the recipient's time zone.
3. Register your brand and campaign for 10DLC, with sample messages that match what you send.
4. Open every text with your business name, and include "Reply STOP to opt out."
5. Treat stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel and unsubscribe as opt-outs. Send one confirmation and stop. Suppress the number across every campaign. See consent revocation rules.
6. Never text a list you did not collect yourself. Use a link shortener dedicated to your business, not a public one, and do not share a sending number without your provider's approval.
7. Cap contact at three attempts in 24 hours on the same subject, matching the Oklahoma and Florida call limits.

Consent record keeping

CTIA lists the fields to keep for each opt-in. Keep all of them for as long as you text the person, and longer if you can.

Field	Why it matters
Timestamp of consent	Shows consent came before the first text
Medium (web form, SMS keyword, paper)	Shows how consent was given
Exact wording and action shown	Proves the disclosure named you and the text program
Campaign	Shows consent matches the messages sent
IP address	Ties a web submission to a session
Phone number	Shows which number consented
Identity (name or session ID)	Ties the number to a person

Also store every opt-out request. Under 47 CFR 64.1200(d)(6), a caller must maintain a record of a consumer's request not to receive further calls.

Penalty exposure

A federal text suit seeks $500 per violation, and a court can raise it to three times that for willful or knowing violations (47 U.S.C. 227(b)(3)). Worked example: 2,000 texts to numbers without consent is 2,000 x $500 = $1,000,000 base, or $3,000,000 if trebled. Florida and Oklahoma use the same $500 base and 3x cap. Washington sets $100 per commercial text (RCW 19.190.040) and at least $1,000 per violation for repeated violations of its call statute (RCW 80.36.390). Carrier penalties are separate: filtering, extra fees and number suspension. For the full range, see telemarketing penalties. Voice drops have their own rules in ringless voicemail rules, and calling rules are in cold calling laws.

What changed in the last 24 months

• 01/24/2025: The Eleventh Circuit vacated the FCC's one-to-one consent restriction in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC (No. 24-10277). Multi-seller consent is a legal question again, but CTIA still ties opt-in to one sender and campaign.
• 04/11/2025: The FCC revocation rules took effect (any reasonable method, STOP and similar replies, 10 business days, in 64.1200(a)(10)). The "revoke all" part, which applies one opt-out to unrelated messages, was waived to 04/11/2026 (FCC DA 26-12).
• 01/06/2026: The FCC extended the "revoke all" waiver to 01/31/2027 (FCC DA 26-12).
• 09/01/2025: Texas SB 140 took effect, adding text and graphic messages to the telephone solicitation definition.
• 2026: Washington amended RCW 19.190.040 (2026 c 135); recipient damages for a commercial text are now $100 or actual damages.

Next step

A purchased list cannot be texted for marketing, so use it for mail or calls that earn the written opt-in, then text the people who give it. Request counts for your market, or see the how-to on SMS text prospecting, the compliance hub and homeowner counts.

This page is a plain-English summary with sources, not legal advice. Last reviewed 10/10/2026.

Questions people ask

Q01Is it legal to text leads I bought on a list?

Not for marketing unless each person gave written consent that clearly authorizes your texts to that number. A purchased lead without that consent record is a TCPA risk. CTIA also says senders should not use rented, sold or shared opt-in lists.

Q02Do I need 10DLC registration to text from a local number?

Carriers require it for business texting over standard 10-digit numbers. The Campaign Registry says brands and campaigns are verified before they send. Unregistered senders face extra fees and filtering. The exact block date varies by source and is unconfirmed here.

Q03What are the quiet hours for texting?

Federal rules bar telephone solicitations before 8am or after 9pm at the recipient's location. Florida, Oklahoma and Washington statutes use 8pm as the end. Because those statutes speak of calls and not texts, the safe course is 8am to 8pm recipient time everywhere.

Q04Can I send marketing texts to Washington residents?

Only with consent given in advance. RCW 19.190.060 bars commercial texts to a Washington resident's cell phone, and RCW 19.190.070 allows them only when the person clearly and affirmatively consented first. Recipient damages are $100 or actual damages per text under RCW 19.190.040 as amended in 2026.

Q05Is a Florida text lawsuit possible without a STOP reply?

Under Fla. Stat. 501.059(10)(c), a person can sue over text solicitations only after replying STOP, and only if texts continue 15 days after that notice and the person did not consent. A consent record defeats the claim. Federal TCPA suits have no such 15-day wait.

Sources

1. 47 CFR 64.1200, Delivery restrictions (Cornell LII mirror) (text = call, consent, hours, revocation)law.cornell.edu
2. 47 U.S.C. 227, TCPA (private right of action, damages)law.cornell.edu
3. CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023 (sections 5.1, 5.3 and 5.5)api.ctia.org
4. The Campaign Registry (10DLC registry)campaignregistry.com
5. Twilio: A2P 10DLC registration overview (brand and campaign; page modified 07/07/2026)twilio.com
6. Fla. Stat. 501.059, Telephone Solicitation Actleg.state.fl.us
7. Fla. Stat. 501.616, Telemarketing Actleg.state.fl.us
8. Oklahoma HB 3168 (2022), Telephone Solicitation Act, enrolledoklegislature.gov
9. RCW 80.36.390, Washington telephone solicitationapp.leg.wa.gov
10. RCW 19.190.060, Washington commercial text messagesapp.leg.wa.gov
11. Texas SB 140 (2025), enrolledcapitol.texas.gov
12. Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 577 U.S. 153 (2016) (a text message qualifies as a call under 227(b)(1)(A)(iii))law.cornell.edu
13. RCW 19.190.070, Washington commercial texts: when allowedapp.leg.wa.gov
14. RCW 19.190.040, Washington damages ($100, amended 2026 c 135)app.leg.wa.gov
15. Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC, 11th Cir. No. 24-10277 (01/24/2025)media.ca11.uscourts.gov
16. FCC Order DA 26-12 (01/06/2026), revoke-all waiver extended to 01/31/2027 (also records the 04/11/2025 effective date of the revocation rules)docs.fcc.gov