VICIfast
Glossary

TCPA

The US federal statute that governs autodialed and pre-recorded calls, and what it requires of a dialer.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is the 1991 US federal statute that governs autodialed calls, pre-recorded messages and telemarketing generally. The operating rules sit in the FCC's implementing regulations at 47 CFR § 64.1200, and the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule covers overlapping ground for most commercial calling.

None of this is legal advice - the point of this entry is to connect each obligation to the dialer setting that carries it.

The obligations, and where they live in VICIdial

  • Calling hours. Calls are restricted to 8am–9pm in the called party's local time, not yours. VICIdial enforces this through the campaign's local_call_time and the lead's gmt_offset_now. Note that manual dialing skips the check unless manual_dial_call_time_check is enabled.
  • Do Not Call. Registry data plus your own opt-outs. See DNC for the two tables involved and the use_internal_dnc switch that turns the check on.
  • Abandonment. Predictive dialing is permitted under a safe harbour that caps abandoned calls at 3% per campaign over a 30-day period, and requires a prompt identifying message when a call is abandoned. See drop call seconds and abandonment limit.
  • Caller ID. The number you transmit has to be accurate and reachable. This is also where STIR/SHAKEN attestation intersects with answer rates.
  • Consent. Prior express written consent is required for autodialed or pre-recorded marketing calls to mobile numbers. A voicemail drop is still a call for this purpose.
  • Reassigned numbers. Consent belongs to a person, not a phone number. See the Reassigned Number Database.

Why the exposure is unusual

TCPA carries a private right of action with statutory damages of $500 per violation, trebled to $1,500 for willful or knowing violations, and no cap. Because the damages are per call, an ordinary configuration mistake running unnoticed across a list produces an arithmetic problem rather than a rounding error. That, more than any single rule, is why compliance settings on a dialer are worth reviewing before a campaign goes live rather than after.

State law sits on top of the federal floor, and several states are materially stricter on hours, consent and mobile calling.

See also