Washington limits telephone solicitations to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time, bars solicitations to numbers on the federal do not call registry, bans automatic dialing and announcing devices for commercial solicitation, and requires commercial telephone solicitors to register.
From official sources, checked September 26, 2026. General information, not legal advice.
A commercial telephone solicitor must register with the Department of Licensing before doing business in Washington, which includes both soliciting from a Washington location and soliciting purchasers located in Washington. The Department says a license is needed for each location of a business that makes unsolicited commercial telephone calls and sells during the call, or that offers free prizes by mail and invites a telephone response. Exclusions include a caller who does not try to complete a sale or make the major sales presentation on the call and only makes or arranges that presentation at a later face to face meeting, isolated transactions, and calls only to the business's prior purchasers.
A telephone solicitor may not place calls that will be received before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. at the call recipient's local time, and the commercial telephone solicitation law repeats that limit. A telephone solicitation is the unsolicited initiation of a call by a commercial or nonprofit company or organization to encourage a purchase, wrongfully obtain anything of value, or solicit donations. Calls responding to the called party's request or inquiry, including calls about an item bought from the company within the prior 12 months, are excluded.
No person may initiate, or cause to be initiated, a telephone solicitation to a number on the federal do not call registry. If the called party asks not to be called again or to be removed, the solicitor must say their information will be removed for at least one year, end the call within 10 seconds, make no further solicitation to that number for at least one year, and not sell or give their contact information to another company, other than returning the list to its source.
No person may use an automatic dialing and announcing device for commercial solicitation intended for telephone customers in Washington. That device automatically dials numbers and transmits a recorded or artificial voice message once connected, even when the message goes to voicemail, and commercial solicitation means the unsolicited initiation of a call to encourage a purchase or wrongfully obtain anything of value. No person may give substantial assistance to transmitting such a call while knowing, or consciously avoiding knowing, that the caller is engaged in a practice that violates the Consumer Protection Act. An injured person may sue for the greater of actual damages or a statutory amount per violation.
Within the first 30 seconds, a caller must give their name, the company or organization they call for, and the purpose of the call. Solicitations may not violate 47 U.S.C. 227(e)(1), which the Attorney General describes as a ban on misleading or inaccurate caller identification used to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value. A purchase from a commercial telephone solicitation is not final without a written confirmation explaining cancellation rights, and the buyer may cancel in writing within three business days after receiving it.
RCW 80.36.390, which holds the calling hours, identification, and do not call rules, says a telephone solicitation does not include business to business contacts. The commercial telephone solicitation law exempts a business to business sale only where the buying business will resell the goods or use them in a recycling, reuse, remanufacturing, or manufacturing process, and the Department of Licensing lists a similar exception.
Washington makes it unlawful to record a private communication transmitted by telephone without first obtaining the consent of all participants, and the same rule covers private conversations recorded by any device. Consent is considered obtained when one party announces to all other parties, in any reasonably effective manner, that the conversation is about to be recorded, and when the conversation is recorded, the announcement must be recorded too.
The registration law excludes a person who does not intend to complete or obtain provisional acceptance of a sale on the call, does not make the major sales presentation on the call, and only makes or arranges that presentation at a later face to face meeting. The calling hours, identification, and do not call rules in RCW 80.36.390 use a separate definition that does not contain that exclusion.
RCW 80.36.400 says no person may use an automatic dialing and announcing device for commercial solicitation intended for Washington telephone customers, and it counts a recorded message that goes to voicemail. Commercial solicitation is defined as an unsolicited call, and the Attorney General says such a robocall is illegal unless the business has prior permission.
RCW 80.36.390 sets a single window with no separate weekend rule: a telephone solicitor may not place calls that will be received before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. at the call recipient's local time.
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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