TCPA & consent

1. The rule

The TCPA, 47 U.S.C. § 227, and the FCC's implementing orders generally prohibit:

• Calls or text messages to wireless numbers made using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice without prior express consent;
• Marketing calls or text messages to wireless or residential numbers using an automatic dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice without prior express written consent; and
• Marketing calls to residential lines using an artificial or prerecorded voice without prior express written consent.

The rule applies to commercial communications regardless of the technology used to place them. Consent must be in a form that identifies the technology being authorized and the specific seller or sender authorized to use it.

2. Categories of consent

Dials models three distinct categories of consent and enforces the correct one based on the call or message type:

• Express informed consent. Required for non-marketing, non-emergency calls and texts to wireless numbers made using an autodialer or artificial/prerecorded voice. Collected, dated, and source-attributed in the consent record.
• Express written consent. Required for marketing calls and texts using an autodialer or artificial/prerecorded voice. Must include a clear and conspicuous disclosure that the recipient is consenting to receive marketing communications, that consent is not a condition of any purchase, and that the technology used may include autodialing or prerecorded voice.
• Existing business relationship. A narrow basis for certain non-marketing calls to residential lines. Documented at the seat and supported by transactional records.

3. How Dials collects and stores consent

Customers provide consent records through the Dials API, the dashboard, or a one-time import. Each consent record carries:

• recipient identifier (phone number, in E.164);
• channel and category (SMS marketing, voice marketing, voice transactional, etc.);
• timestamp (UTC) and source IP or originating system;
• the language the recipient consented in;
• the verbatim wording the recipient agreed to;
• the lawful basis identifier (express written, express informed, EBR, etc.); and
• any expiry the Customer chose to apply.

The consent record is hashed and time-stamped. Dials evaluates the record at the messaging or calling boundary; the platform refuses to dispatch a communication that does not have a matching active consent record.

4. Withdrawal and opt-out

The recipient may withdraw consent at any time, by any reasonable means. Dials honors textual opt-outs (STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, and equivalents in supported languages) within seconds and registers spoken opt-outs detected by recording or transcription. Once a recipient has opted out, Dials suppresses further communications across all channels operated under the same brand for that recipient until consent is freshly collected. Opt-outs are recorded in the audit ledger.

5. Time-of-day restrictions

Marketing calls and texts to residential and wireless lines must occur between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time of the recipient unless an exception applies. Dials enforces time-of-day restrictions based on the recipient's number-plan area and, where available, the Customer's recorded time zone for the recipient.

6. Specific use cases

Healthcare, financial-services account-servicing, government, school, and certain public-safety communications enjoy narrowly defined exemptions. Customers seeking to rely on an exemption must declare it on the seat and provide the underlying basis on request. Dials does not infer exemptions on Customers' behalf.

7. Recordkeeping

Customers must retain consent records and opt-out records for at least four (4) years after the most recent communication, except where a longer period is required by law. Dials retains consent and opt-out records on Customers' behalf for the duration of the account and provides export on request.

8. Customer obligations

Customers are solely responsible for:

• obtaining lawful consent before instructing Dials to dispatch a communication;
• presenting accurate disclosures at the point of consent collection;
• responding to recipient complaints within commercially reasonable time;
• maintaining internal do-not-call procedures, including for affiliated companies; and
• ensuring that any agent operating under their account complies with the Agent Conduct Addendum.

9. Other jurisdictions

For Canada, CASL and CRTC rules apply. For the United Kingdom, PECR and ICO guidance apply. For the EU, the ePrivacy Directive transpositions in each Member State apply. Dials applies the strictest applicable rule when our adapters detect cross-border traffic; Customers remain responsible for compliance.