Texas requires many telephone sellers to register with the Secretary of State, keeps a state no call list through the Public Utility Commission, limits residential sales calls to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (noon on Sunday), and added remedies in 2025.
From official sources, checked September 26, 2026. General information, not legal advice.
A seller may not make a telephone solicitation from a Texas location or to a purchaser in Texas without a registration certificate for that business location. It files a registration statement with the Secretary of State, posts a bond, letter of credit, or certificate of deposit, and files quarterly addenda naming its salespeople. Registration lasts one year and may be renewed annually. Exemptions include insurance licensees in Insurance Code transactions, supervised financial institutions, sellers calling current or former customers under a name used at least two years, and callers who make no sale or major sales presentation on the call but arrange a later face to face presentation.
The Public Utility Commission provides for the Texas no call list, which combines Texans who asked to be listed with the Texas portion of the national do not call registry. A telemarketer may not call a listed number more than 60 days after it appears on the current list. The chapter does not apply to calls within an established business relationship, debt collection calls, or certain calls by state licensees who do not use an automated dialing system and complete the sale only after a face to face presentation.
For unsolicited sales calls to residential numbers, a telephone solicitor may call only after 9 a.m. and before 9 p.m. on a weekday or Saturday, and after noon and before 9 p.m. on Sunday. Immediately after making contact, the caller must give their name, the business they call for, and the purpose of the call. These rules do not apply to calls at the consumer's express request, calls about an unfinished debt or contract, or calls within a prior or existing business relationship.
Chapter 305 bars a sales call to a mobile number that will be charged for that specific call unless the called person consented. A person who receives a communication that violates 47 U.S.C. 227, its rules, or that subchapter may sue in Texas for an injunction, damages, or both. Senate Bill 140, effective September 1, 2025, made violations of chapters 304 and 305 deceptive acts under Subchapter E of chapter 17, whose public and private remedies can enforce them, and said past recoveries may not limit recovery in a future case.
Chapter 304 does not apply to a call between a telemarketer and a business, other than a fax solicitation, unless the business has said it does not want that telemarketer's calls. The chapter 301 calling hours reach only unsolicited calls to residential numbers. Chapter 302 does not apply when the purchaser is a business buying to resell or for use in a manufacturing or recycling process. The Public Utility Commission says its Electric No Call list, for retail electric providers, enrolls business numbers.
A telemarketer may not block the number it calls from, fail to provide caller ID information it is capable of providing, or send misleading caller ID information. Substituting the name and telephone number of the person on whose behalf the call is made is allowed.
Texas makes it an affirmative defense to prosecution under its interception law that a person not acting under color of law intercepted a communication as a party to it, or after one party gave prior consent, unless the purpose was to commit an unlawful act.
Yes, for sellers that are not exempt. Section 302.101 covers telephone solicitations made from a location in Texas or to a purchaser located in Texas.
Senate Bill 140 took effect September 1, 2025. It added text messages, graphic messages, and images to the chapter 302 definition of telephone solicitation, made violations of chapters 304 and 305 deceptive acts under Subchapter E of chapter 17, and applies only to conduct from that date on.
The Secretary of State says that, in light of Ecommerce Marketers Alliance v. Texas and an agreement among the parties, a business that sends text messages with the consumer's prior consent is not required to complete the chapter 302 registration statement. The notice addresses text messages sent with prior consent.
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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