The beginning of a new year is a great time to take a look at your outbound calling practices. Ensuring your practices are in line with current federal and state rules and regulations will go a long way towards having a productive year, as opposed to one plagued by compliance issues and litigation.
To help you start your call campaigns off on the right foot in 2026, below we cover:
- Why outbound call compliance should be a top priority for your business;
- Three compliance practices you should start; and
- Three compliance practices you should leave behind this year
Why Outbound Call Compliance Should be a Top Priority in 2026
In 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that courts no longer have to defer to federal agency interpretation of ambiguous statutes. Then in 2025, the Supreme Court held that United States District Courts are not bound by final FCC orders.
Now, in 2026, the new outbound-call-compliance landscape will start to take shape in light of those decisions. But it will take time for that landscape to take form, as those decisions have made call compliance the proverbial wild wild west for the foreseeable future.
A lot of what we thought we knew is now open to debate, and we don’t yet know where the courts will land—and various courts are landing on different answers to the same question.
For example, since those holdings, whether Subsections 227(b) and (c) of the TCPA apply to text messages has been heavily litigated. Multiple United States District Courts have reached different conclusions, and there likely will be no final answer until the Supreme Court decides to weigh in.
Thus, unless one is eager to enter the fray, attempting to comply with a strict reading of the current outbound calling laws and regulations is the safest path to take until the dust settles. To assist with limiting compliance risk, here are some outbound calling practices to start and stop in 2026.
Outbound Call Compliance Practices to Start
Start Having a Written Internal Do Not Call (DNC) Policy Available Upon Demand
Regardless of whether you are making sales calls or sending sales texts, one of the easiest ways to run afoul of the TCPA is to not have a written internal DNC policy that is available upon demand.
Say you call a consumer and at the end of the call he requests a copy of your internal DNC policy. But you are unable to provide him with a written policy because it is just communicated orally to your employees. You have now potentially violated the TCPA by simply failing to produce a written version of your policy to that consumer.
The easiest way to avoid this pitfall is to ensure your internal DNC policy is written down and can easily be produced to consumers upon demand.
Start Utilizing the FCC’s Reassigned Number Database
We are seeing a rise in reassigned-number cases within TCPA litigation. In a reassigned-number case, a company makes a sales call to a telephone number that it believes it has consent to call. But unbeknownst to the company, that telephone number was reassigned from the prior subscriber, who did consent to receive your regulated calls, to a new subscriber who did not. Now, through no fault of its own, that company has possibly unknowingly violated the TCPA.
The FCC’s Reassigned Number Database exists to help prevent that scenario. If you subscribe to the FCC’s Reassigned Numbers Database and query a number you’re about to call, and the database reports that the number has not been reassigned, you are entitled to a “safe harbor” from TCPA claims because you did the only thing you could practically do to comply with the TCPA. (And, of course, the opposite is true: if it reports a “yes”—that the number has been recently reassigned—you suppress that call.)
Start Being Aware of State Calling Laws and Regulations
A number of states have enacted their own mini-TCPAs (Oklahoma, Florida, Texas). Many states have included language clarifying that their mini-TCPAs apply to text messages. For example, Texas recently amended sections of its mini-TCPA to make them applicable to text messages, with those amendments becoming effective on September 1, 2025.
While ensuring your outbound calling practices comply with the TCPA, it is important not to overlook complying with applicable state calling laws, especially with states taking steps to clarify whether their calling laws apply to both calls and text messages.
Outbound Call Compliance Practices to Stop
Stop Making Prerecorded Telemarketing Calls, Unless You Have Prior Express Written Consent
Under the TCPA, there is no riskier call to make than a prerecorded sales call. That is because such a call is only lawful when you have the called party’s prior express written consent (PEWC). PEWC is the most strict form of required consent under the TCPA (here you can read more about the types of consent required by the TCPA for different types of calls).
If you make prerecorded sales calls, it is imperative that you ensure you have the PEWC of every person you make such a call to.
Stop Cold Calling for Sales Calls Without First Scrubbing Against the NDNCR
There is a common misconception that the TCPA has rendered cold calling illegal. But that is not the case. Instead, the FCC’s TCPA implementing regulations prohibit making sales calls to residential telephone subscribers who have registered their telephone numbers on the NDNCR.
Consent is an exception to that regulation. But consent is unlikely to exist when engaging in cold calling. Instead, one must scrub against the NDNCR before making cold sales calls to limit the risk of violating that regulation. There are multiple companies that provide DNC scrubbing services, and Readymode has integrations with some of the country’s largest DNC scrubbing providers.
Stop Outsourcing Your TCPA Compliance
Don’t give your brand—and your bottom line—to poorly supervised third parties and call centers.
If a company outsources their telemarketing to a third-party caller, the plaintiff is going to sue that company first, even if the caller was a third party’s employee. This happens every day.
A caller must pay careful attention to the TCPA’s rules, which vary based on how you’re calling, the purpose of your calls, and the type of phone number you’re calling.
No one is going to be more concerned with ensuring your TCPA compliance than you. Thus, it is safest not to rely on others when it comes to your TCPA compliance.
But if you do outsource your calling to a third party, before doing so, take steps to be sure you’re leaving your brand—and your TCPA exposure—in good, compliant hands.
The Bottom Line
Start 2026 off on the right foot by taking a look at your outbound call practices. Starting practices that limit compliance risk, while stopping practices that increase that risk, will put you on the right track for a productive and profitable year.
This article is only offered for informational purposes; it is not legal advice. Please consult a qualified attorney for your specific compliance needs.
Joe Bowser
Joe Bowser is a partner at Roth Jackson. He has been practicing communications and marketing law for two decades. He advises and defends calling and SMS platform providers (like Readymode), carriers/VoIP providers, and heavy users of those services in their wide range of compliance needs. In his spare time, you can find him taking his boys to their sports, getting in a workout of his own, or catching an Arsenal match.
