Illinois telemarketing rules

Calling hours for live and recorded calls

The Telephone Solicitations Act bars anyone from soliciting the sale of goods or services in Illinois by placing a telephone call between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. The Automatic Telephone Dialers Act sets a narrower window for autodialers, barring their operation in Illinois to place calls between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. That act defines an autodialer as a device that stores numbers and accesses them sequentially or randomly to connect a phone with a recorded message.

What a live caller must say and do

Under the Telephone Solicitations Act, a live operator soliciting sales must immediately state their name, the business or organization they represent and the purpose of the call, and must ask at the start whether the person consents to the solicitation. Continuing a solicitation without the called party's consent is a violation. If the person asks to be taken off the contact list, the caller must stop calling and remove the name and number from its contact records, and compliance with section 310.4(b) of the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule counts as compliance with that duty. Callers may not impede caller ID when their service or equipment can display their number.

Autodialer and recorded message rules

Autodialers must disconnect within 30 seconds after the call ends; if that is not technically feasible, a live operator must give their name, the business's name, address and phone number and the purpose of the call, and ask whether the person consents to hear the recorded message. Playing a prerecorded message placed by an autodialer without the called party's consent is a violation. Operators sending commercial messages must keep a list of all numbers called and records supporting any exemption. Calls made at the person's express request, calls to people with a prior or existing business relationship, and certain political, charitable, polling and research calls are exempt, except from the caller ID rule.

No separate state list

Illinois once had a Restricted Call Registry Act, but the General Assembly lists that act as repealed by a public act that took effect July 20, 2018. The Attorney General's Office tells residents they can register home and cell phone numbers on the nationwide Do Not Call Registry, that registration does not expire, and that the office enforces the Registry's rules. Federal rules bar telephone solicitations to residential subscribers who have registered on the national registry.

Calls to businesses and exempt callers

The Telephone Solicitations Act defines a telephone solicitation as any communication through the use of a telephone by live operators for soliciting the sale of goods or services, and that definition does not mention residential lines. The act does not apply to telecommunications carriers, banks, trust companies, credit unions, licensed insurers, real estate licensees and certain other financial businesses, or their affiliates, employees or agents. It also does not apply to calls made by an autodialer, except for the caller ID rule.

Recording calls

Illinois law makes it eavesdropping to knowingly and intentionally use an eavesdropping device, in a surreptitious manner, to record or transmit a private conversation one is a party to without the consent of all other parties. A private conversation is one a party intended to be private under circumstances reasonably justifying that expectation. A separate exemption lets a business engaged in telephone solicitation record or listen to employees' solicitation calls for quality control, training or internal research when at least one active party consents, with conditions such as employee notice, workplace signage and limits on sharing recordings.