What 47 U.S.C. § 227 actually says

Shape of the section

Most TCPA claims rest on two subsections. Subsection (b) restricts how calls are made: with an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice. Subsection (c) restricts who may be called: people who have asked not to be, through the national registry or a company's own list. Each has its own private right of action with the same $500 figure. A single call can violate both. The rest of the section supplies definitions, technical requirements, the caller ID prohibition, and the relationship with state law.

(a) Definitions

Subsection (a) defines five terms. An automatic telephone dialing system is equipment which has the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator, and to dial such numbers. The Supreme Court read that definition in Duguid; see the autodialer entry. An established business relationship is defined by reference to the FCC's rules. A telephone facsimile machine and an unsolicited advertisement are defined for the fax provisions. A telephone solicitation is a call or message to encourage the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods or services, but not a call made with the called party's prior express invitation or permission, to a person with whom the caller has an established business relationship, or by a tax-exempt nonprofit.

(b) Restrictions on the use of automated telephone equipment

Paragraph (b)(1) makes it unlawful, with exceptions, to do four things.

(b)(1)(A)

To make any call, other than for emergency purposes or with the prior express consent of the called party, using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice to an emergency line, a hospital or care-facility room, or any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call. This is the provision that covers autodialed and prerecorded calls and texts to mobile phones.

(b)(1)(B)

To initiate any call to a residential telephone line using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver a message without prior express consent, unless the call is for emergency purposes or exempted by FCC rule.

(b)(1)(C)

To use a fax machine, computer or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a fax machine, subject to the established business relationship and opt-out conditions added in 2005.

(b)(1)(D)

To use an automatic telephone dialing system in a way that engages two or more lines of a multi-line business at the same time.

Paragraph (b)(2) tells the FCC to prescribe rules implementing these restrictions and lists the exemptions it may create, including calls that are not made for a commercial purpose and commercial calls that do not adversely affect privacy and do not include an unsolicited advertisement. The FCC's written-consent requirement for telemarketing robocalls comes from its authority under this paragraph.

(b)(3) Private right of action

A person or entity may bring an action to enjoin a violation of subsection (b) or the rules under it, to recover actual monetary loss or $500 in damages for each violation, whichever is greater, or both. If the court finds the defendant willfully or knowingly violated the subsection or the rules, it may increase the award up to three times that amount. The action may be brought in an appropriate court of a state, if otherwise permitted by that state's laws or court rules. Since Mims v. Arrow Financial Services (2012), federal courts also have jurisdiction.

(c) Protection of subscriber privacy rights

Subsection (c) does not itself ban anything. It directs the FCC to adopt rules to protect residential telephone subscribers' privacy rights to avoid telephone solicitations they object to, and authorises a national database of subscribers who object. The rules the FCC adopted under this subsection, at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c) and (d), are the National Do Not Call Registry rules, the 8am to 9pm window, and the company-specific do-not-call list requirements.

Paragraph (c)(5) supplies the second private right of action. A person who has received more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity in violation of the regulations may sue for an injunction, for actual loss or up to $500 per violation, or both, with the same trebling for willful or knowing violations. It also contains an affirmative defence: that the defendant has established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures to prevent violations.

(d) Technical and procedural standards

Subsection (d) requires the FCC to set standards for systems that use artificial or prerecorded voices: the message must state the identity of the business at the beginning and the telephone number or address during or after the message, and the system must release the called party's line within five seconds of notification that the called party has hung up. It also sets the fax header requirements. These are the provisions behind the identification rules in § 64.1200(b).

(e) Caller identification

Added by the Truth in Caller ID Act, subsection (e) prohibits causing any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value. It is enforced by the FCC and by state attorneys general, not by private action. Spoofing a local number to improve answer rates is the common fact pattern.

(f) Effect on state law

Subsection (f)(1) says nothing in section 227 pre-empts any state law that imposes more restrictive intrastate requirements on automated calls, prerecorded messages, faxes, or telephone solicitation. This is the clause that allows the state statutes described in the state-law entry to coexist with the federal one and to be broader than it. Subsection (f)(2) deals with the national database and state databases.

(g) Actions by states

A state attorney general may bring a civil action in federal court on behalf of residents against a person who has engaged in a pattern or practice of calls in violation of the section or its rules, for injunctive relief, damages of actual loss or $500 per violation, and trebling for willful or knowing violations. The FCC has a right to intervene.

Where the rules fit

The statute delegates much of the detail to the FCC. The rules at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200 define prior express written consent, set the calling hours, require the registry scrub and the internal list, define the established business relationship, and supply the safe harbour. Reading the statute without the rules gives an incomplete picture, and reading the rules without the 2025 McLaughlin decision overstates how binding they are on a court.