Words to know

Twenty words you will see in a TCPA letter, each explained in one sentence. The short version: the TCPA is the federal law about calls and texts. A demand letter says you broke it. Statutory damages are $500 per call or text, up to $1,500 if willful. Consent is the person's yes, and it is the one thing that ends a claim. The rest are below.

TCPA

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the 1991 federal law about calls and texts.

FCC

The Federal Communications Commission, the government agency that writes the detailed rules under the TCPA.

Demand letter

A private letter that says you broke the law and asks you to pay or respond by a date, before any lawsuit.

Statutory damages

Money the law sets in advance, $500 per call or text, so the person does not have to prove they lost anything.

Willful

Done on purpose or knowing it broke the rules, which lets a court raise the amount to $1,500 per call or text.

Consent

The person said yes to your calls or texts before you sent them.

Prior express written consent

A signed, written yes to sales calls or texts by automated means, with the number and a line saying agreeing is not required to buy.

Autodialer

Equipment that can make up phone numbers with a random or sequential number generator, as the Supreme Court defined it in 2021.

Prerecorded or artificial voice

A recorded or computer-made voice playing on a call, which needs consent no matter how the call was dialed.

Robocall

An everyday word for a call made by a machine or playing a recording.

National Do Not Call Registry

The government list of numbers that sales calls must not go to, which you must check with a copy no more than 31 days old.

Internal do-not-call list

Your own list of people who told your business to stop calling, which you must keep and honor.

Opt out

The person taking back their yes, for example by replying STOP, which you must honor within ten business days.

Vendor

A company you hire to make calls or send texts, whose rule-breaking the law treats as yours.

Lead

A person's contact details sold or passed to you as a possible customer, often without a real yes to hearing from you.

Scrub

Checking your list against the Do Not Call Registry and your own do-not-call list before you call.

Release

The part of a settlement where the person agrees not to sue you over the calls listed.

Settlement

An agreement to end the claim for a payment, with no admission that you did anything wrong.

Statute of limitations

The time limit for suing, which is four years from each call under federal law.

FTSA

The Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, Florida's own version of the law, with its own $500 to $1,500 per call.

Two of these matter most. Read what is consent and what could it cost.