Maryland requires prior express written consent for solicitations using an automated selection or dialing system or a recorded message, bars solicitations from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., limits same subject calls to three per 24 hours, and requires all party consent to record.
From official sources, checked September 26, 2026. General information, not legal advice.
Without the called party's prior express written consent, a person may not make or cause to be made a telephone solicitation that involves an automated system for the selection or dialing of telephone numbers, or a recorded message played when the call connects. Exemptions from this consent rule include isolated transactions, certain nonprofit and public opinion research calls, repair or maintenance offers on goods the caller sold, a single call answering a customer's inquiry, and informational calls to existing customers that become solicitations at the customer's further inquiry. A violation is an unfair, abusive, or deceptive trade practice. An older law separately restricts automated dialing with prerecorded sales messages.
Prior express written consent is a written agreement bearing the called party's signature that clearly authorizes solicitations by call, text message, or voicemail using an automated system for the selection or dialing of numbers, a recorded or artificial voice message, or a prerecorded voicemail. It must include the authorized telephone number and a clear and conspicuous disclosure that signing authorizes those calls and that the called party need not sign, or agree as a condition of buying any property, goods, or services. An electronic or digital signature counts where federal law or state contract law recognizes it.
A person may not make or cause to be made a telephone solicitation, including a call made through automated dialing or a recorded message, to a called party between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. in the called party's time zone, or more than three times to the same called party in a 24 hour period on the same subject, regardless of the numbers used. Intentionally altering the caller's voice to disguise identity in order to defraud, confuse, or injure the called party, or to obtain personal information for unlawful use, is also barred. The Act's exemption list applies to subsection (a), the consent rule; these limits are in subsection (c).
A telephone solicitor must transmit its originating number and, when the carrier makes it available, its name to caller ID, and may not block that information or display a different number to conceal its identity; showing the seller's name and customer service number is allowed. Under the Maryland Telephone Solicitations Act, a contract from a merchant initiated sale made entirely by telephone is not valid and enforceable against the consumer unless it is in writing, signed by the consumer, and carries a required notice. That Act exempts, among others, transactions with a prior sale or preexisting business relationship.
Maryland law bars any person from violating the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule or the Federal Communications Commission's telemarketing rules, makes a violation an unfair or deceptive trade practice, and lets an affected individual sue. The federal rules bar telephone solicitations to a residential subscriber whose number is on the national do not call registry. The Attorney General's consumer guide tells Maryland residents to register landline and cell numbers with the National Do Not Call Registry and describes no separate state list.
Maryland's wiretap law makes it a felony to willfully intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication except as the subtitle provides. The subtitle makes an interception lawful for a person who is a party to the communication when all of the parties have given prior consent, unless the purpose is to commit a criminal or tortious act. Intercept means the aural or other acquisition of a communication's contents through any electronic, mechanical, or other device.
The consent rule does not apply to a business to business sale where the telephone solicitor has been lawfully operating continuously for at least 3 years under the same business name. That exemption is in the list that applies to the consent rule subsection; the calling hours, call limit, and caller ID rules are in other subsections. The separate Maryland Telephone Solicitations Act covers only consumer goods, services, and realty, meaning those primarily for personal, household, family, or agricultural purposes.
The hours rule covers any telephone solicitation, and the Act says that includes calls made through automated dialing or a recorded message. No solicitation may reach a called party between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. in the called party's time zone.
Since a 2024 amendment, a called party aggrieved by a violation of the Stop the Spam Calls Act may sue to stop further violations and recover damages, with more available for willful or knowing violations. A separate statute lets an individual affected by a violation of the federal telemarketing rules sue under Maryland law.
The Act presumes that a solicitation to any Maryland area code is made to a resident, or to a person reasonably presumed to reside or have a place of business in Maryland, at the time of the call. The presumption is rebuttable.
Checked September 26, 2026. Every fact on this page comes from these official sources. General information, not legal advice: rules change, so confirm with the cited statute or agency and with counsel.
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