Ohio telemarketing rules

Registration and bond with the Attorney General

Ohio Rev. Code 4719.01, 4719.02, 4719.04, 4719.16

No person may act as a telephone solicitor without a certificate of registration from the Attorney General and a surety bond, filed with the Attorney General and kept in effect for at least two years after soliciting stops. The application covers owners, locations, every telephone number to be used, salespeople, and scripts. The Act lists 27 categories of exemptions, including licensed insurance and real estate agents within their licenses, supervised financial institutions, and home solicitation sales completed at a later face to face meeting.

No separate state do not call list

Ohio Rev. Code 109.87

The Attorney General's business guide says Ohio does not have a separate do not call law, although the federal do not call laws may be enforced by the Attorney General in federal or state court. It says those federal rules require businesses to access the National Do Not Call Registry, remove registered numbers from their calling lists, and keep internal do not call lists of consumers who ask not to be called.

Federal telemarketing rules made part of Ohio law

Ohio Rev. Code 109.87(A), (B)

Section 109.87, last amended by Senate Bill 54 effective March 2, 2022, bars any person, entity, merchant, seller, or telemarketer from any act or practice that violates the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), or rules adopted under either. It also bars knowingly giving substantial assistance or support to a violator, with limits for voice service providers. The Attorney General may investigate and must recognize exemptions the Federal Communications Commission recognizes under the TCPA.

Calling hours come from federal rules

47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1); 16 CFR 310.4(c); Ohio Rev. Code 109.87

Chapter 4719 does not set calling hours. Section 109.87 bars any act or practice that violates the federal telemarketing rules, and those rules include calling hour limits. The Federal Communications Commission rule bars telephone solicitations to residential subscribers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time at the called party's location, and the Telemarketing Sales Rule treats outbound calls to a person's residence outside those hours, without prior consent, as abusive.

Disclosures and caller ID

Ohio Rev. Code 4719.06, 4719.21; Ohio Adm. Code 109:4-3-11

Within the first 60 seconds of a call, and before asking for financial information or describing a prize, product, or service, a telephone solicitor or salesperson must give a true name and the company, state that the purpose is to make a sale, and identify what is sold. An Attorney General rule on direct solicitations, including telephone solicitation at a consumer's residence, requires revealing that sales purpose before any other statement or question. Solicitors may not intentionally block the number they call from.

Sales made during the call

Ohio Rev. Code 4719.07

A verbal agreement to buy made during a telephone solicitation is not valid, and the purchaser is not liable to pay, unless the solicitor receives a signed written confirmation with the terms the Act lists, including its registration number. Instead, a solicitor may follow the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule, run no prize promotion or investment offer, give an unconditional full refund for cancellations within at least seven days, and provide a written notice of cancellation rights.

Calls to businesses

Ohio Rev. Code 4719.01(B)(12)

The Telephone Solicitation Sales Act exempts a business to business sale only when a listed condition is met: the solicitor has operated at least three years under the same name and at least 51 percent of its sales are repeat sales to existing customers, the buyer intends to resell the goods, the buyer will use them in recycling, reuse, manufacturing, or remanufacturing, or the solicitor is a controlled circulation publisher selling related products and services.

Recording calls

Ohio Rev. Code 2933.52(B)(4)

Ohio's interception law bars purposely intercepting, or trying to intercept, a wire, oral, or electronic communication. That bar does not apply to a person who is not a law enforcement officer and intercepts a communication as a party to it, or with the prior consent of one party, unless the purpose is to commit a criminal offense, a tortious act, or another injurious act.