Virginia's Telephone Privacy Protection Act limits telephone solicitations, including texts, to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. without prior consent, bars them to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, requires caller ID, and makes sellers and telephone solicitors jointly liable.
From official sources, checked September 26, 2026. General information, not legal advice.
No telephone solicitor may initiate, or cause to be initiated, a telephone solicitation at any time other than between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time at the contacted person's location, unless it has obtained that person's prior consent. The rule covers both calls and text messages made to offer or advertise property, goods, or services for sale, lease, license, or investment, including an extension of credit.
A telephone solicitor may not initiate a telephone solicitation to a number on the National Do Not Call Registry, or to a number where someone previously said they do not want solicitations made by or for that seller. That statement can be made to the caller or to the seller, and a text recipient makes it by replying UNSUBSCRIBE or STOP. The request must be honored for at least 10 years. It is an affirmative defense that the defendant set up and followed, with due care, reasonable procedures to prevent violations, including using a version of the registry obtained no more than 31 days before the call.
For the do not call rules, a telephone solicitation does not include a call made with the person's prior express invitation or permission shown by a signed, written agreement stating that the person agrees to be contacted by or for a specific party and including the number to be called. Calls within an established business relationship, or a personal relationship with the caller, are also excluded, but neither of those two exclusions applies once the person has asked not to receive solicitations. The calling hours rule separately allows calls outside 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. with the contacted person's prior consent.
A caller may not use an automatic dialing announcing device, which selects and dials numbers and plays a prerecorded or synthesized voice message, for a commercial telephone solicitation unless the subscriber knowingly or voluntarily requested, consented to, permitted, or authorized the message. The other path is a live operator who first discloses who is sending the message, its purpose, the goods or services promoted, and any request for payment, and obtains the subscriber's consent. A commercial telephone solicitation here is an unsolicited sales call to a subscriber with no prior business or personal relationship. Violations are prohibited practices under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.
A caller must promptly give their first and last name and the name of the seller the call is for. The telephone solicitor must transmit its telephone number, and its name when its carrier makes that available, and the number must accept do not call requests during regular business hours; showing the seller's name and customer service number instead is allowed. A seller and its telephone solicitor are jointly and severally liable for violations of the hours, identification, caller ID, and do not call sections.
The Act's definition reaches calls to a natural person's residence in Virginia, calls to any landline or wireless telephone with a Virginia area code, and calls to a landline or wireless telephone registered to a natural person who is a Virginia resident. The automatic dialing announcing device rules apply to calls to a subscriber, meaning a person who has subscribed to telephone service from a telephone company, or others living with that person.
Virginia's interception law says it is not a criminal offense under that chapter for a person to intercept a wire, electronic, or oral communication when that person is a party to the communication, or when one of the parties to it has given prior consent to the interception. Intentionally intercepting such a communication outside the chapter's exceptions is a Class 6 felony.
Yes. Its definition of telephone solicitation includes a text message sent to a wireless telephone with a Virginia area code or registered to a Virginia resident. Under the text in effect since January 1, 2026, a text recipient opts out by replying UNSUBSCRIBE or STOP, and the number shown must accept that reply.
The Act makes a seller and the telephone solicitor jointly and severally liable for violations of its hours, identification, caller ID, and do not call sections. A solicitation offering the seller's goods is presumed made for the seller whether or not an agency relationship exists, and the seller can rebut that only with clear and convincing evidence that it did not retain the caller and the calls were made without its knowledge or consent.
Yes. A natural person aggrieved by a violation may sue the telephone solicitor or the seller for an injunction and statutory damages that rise with repeat violations, plus attorney fees and court costs. The Attorney General, an attorney for the Commonwealth, or a locality's attorney may also sue, and willful violations can bring civil penalties.
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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