North Carolina bars telephone solicitations to numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry, limits them to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., requires callers to identify themselves at the start, and restricts automatic dialing and recorded message players on unsolicited calls.
From official sources, checked September 26, 2026. General information, not legal advice.
North Carolina requires a telephonic seller to register with the Secretary of State at least 10 days before it starts telephone solicitations in the state. A seller is doing business in North Carolina if it solicits prospective purchasers from locations in the state or solicits prospective purchasers who are located in the state. A registration is valid for one year and may be renewed each year. The article defines a telephonic seller as a person who, directly or through salespersons, causes a telephone solicitation to occur, and it lists many exemptions. Among them are a person soliciting a purchase from a business who makes reasonable efforts to reach someone with actual authority to bind the business, and certain callers who arrange for the major sales presentation to happen at a later face to face meeting.
Except as Section 75-103 provides, a telephone solicitor may not call a number that appears in the latest edition of the Do Not Call Registry, and it may not call a subscriber who has told it they want no further solicitations from it. If a subscriber asks to be taken off the contact list, the solicitor must remove the name and number and stop calling within 30 business days. Every telephone solicitor must implement systems and written procedures to prevent these calls, train, monitor and enforce compliance by its employees, and monitor and enforce compliance by its independent contractors.
No telephone solicitor may make a telephone solicitation before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. The same section bars threats, intimidation, and profane or obscene language, and it requires the solicitor to end the call and promptly disconnect if the subscriber objects to the solicitation. Section 75-103 lifts some duties for its listed exceptions, but the calling hours rule is not among the provisions it lifts.
The registry rule does not apply to a subscriber who gave prior express invitation or permission, which the law defines as permission registered on an independent form that contains the number to be called and the subscriber's signature, and the form may be signed electronically. It also does not apply to a subscriber with an established business relationship, meaning a purchase, rental, lease or financial transaction within the prior 18 months, or an inquiry or application within the prior three months. The solicitor carries the burden of proving permission, and the subscriber may retract it. A solicitor may ask a listed subscriber for permission by nontelephonic notice, but may not call to ask for it.
North Carolina bars using an automatic dialing and recorded message player to make an unsolicited telephone call, meaning a call made without prior express invitation or permission, except in listed circumstances. For sales calls, one listed path requires a live operator to first make the identity disclosures in Section 75-102(c), state the nature and length in minutes of the recorded message, and ask for and receive approval to play it. Another allows a recorded message played to comply with the Telemarketing Sales Rule's abandoned call safe harbor in 16 CFR 310.4(b)(4).
Under Section 15A-287, a person commits a crime by willfully intercepting a wire, oral or electronic communication without the consent of at least one party to it. The statute's wording turns on the consent of at least one party, and it also bars disclosing or using the contents of a communication while knowing or having reason to know it was obtained in violation of the article.
At the beginning of a telephone solicitation, the solicitor must clearly state its identity and identify the individual making the call. It may not transmit misleading caller ID information or block the origin of the call, though it may display the name and number of the entity the call is made for. The solicitor must ask whether the subscriber is under 18 and end the call if so, unless it has taken reasonable steps to remove minors from its list or does not target them. North Carolina also bars violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule's sections on deceptive acts, abusive acts and recordkeeping, subject to Section 75-103.
The law's Do Not Call Registry is the registry kept by the Federal Trade Commission, along with any other federal telemarketing registry. The Attorney General may create a state registry only if the federal registry is not operational or stops operating.
Section 75-103 excepts calls made for the sole purpose of arranging a later face to face meeting, if during the call the solicitor does not seek payment, complete a sale, obtain provisional acceptance, or sign the person up for a contest. The exception also fails if the solicitor goes or sends someone directly after the call to collect payment or deliver an item. The calling hours rule and the duty to identify the solicitor at the start of the call are not among the provisions Section 75-103 lifts.
A telephone solicitor, or its agent making calls for it, must keep for 24 months the legal name, any fictitious name, resident address, telephone number and job title of each individual who makes telephone solicitations. A fictitious name must be traceable only to one individual. Calls under the Section 75-103(a)(1) to (5) exceptions are excused from this record rule.
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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