Telemarketing sales rule call times: what hours are legal?

Last updated 2026-07-09

What hours does the Telemarketing Sales Rule allow calls?

The Telemarketing Sales Rule limits calls to the window between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. local time at the called party's location. ^[1] That's the consumer's clock, not yours. A call center in Phoenix dialing a New York number runs on Eastern time, full stop.

The rule sits at 16 CFR § 310.4(c). It makes it an abusive telemarketing act to call a person's residence at any time other than between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time at the called party's location. ^[1] That language has held since the TSR first took effect in 1995, and the FTC has never widened the window.

Thirteen hours sounds generous. It isn't always. Time-zone math trips up teams constantly, especially when auto-dialers blast lists without scrubbing for zone. A call at 7:58 a.m. Eastern is a violation even if the consumer answers happily. The clock runs on when you place the call, not when someone picks up.

The rule covers outbound telephone calls made by telemarketers or sellers in connection with a telemarketing transaction. ^[1] It does not reach purely inbound calls where the consumer dials you. But if a consumer calls in and you then initiate an outbound follow-up as part of the transaction, you're back under TSR jurisdiction.

Does the TSR call-time rule apply to cell phones too?

Yes. The TSR draws no line between landlines and mobile numbers. Any outbound call made by a telemarketer or seller in connection with a plan, program, or campaign to sell goods or services falls under 16 CFR Part 310, cell or residential landline alike. ^[1]

The TCPA adds a separate layer: consent requirements for calls and texts to cell phones that use an automatic telephone dialing system or a prerecorded voice. ^[2] The two laws run in parallel, and you have to satisfy both. A call placed squarely inside the 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. TSR window can still break the TCPA if you lacked prior express written consent for an autodialed call to a cell phone.

When you're doing cold calling to a mixed list of landlines and mobiles, apply the stricter of the two regimes to every number. No autodialed or prerecorded calls to cell phones without consent. No calls at all outside 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time to any residential number.

What exactly does 'local time at the called party's location' mean?

It means the time zone where the consumer physically gets the call. Not where your business sits. Not where your dialing software is hosted. ^[1] If you can't tell the consumer's zone from their area code alone (and you often can't, since number portability broke the area-code-to-geography link years ago), you need a better method.

The FTC has not published a safe harbor for time-zone determination. The practical standard enforcement has settled on is a reasonable, good-faith effort to identify the local time. Common approaches:

• Use a reputable data append service that maps phone numbers to current geographic location.
• Cross-reference the billing address you already have for the consumer.
• Default to the earlier time zone when a number is ambiguous (say, an area code that spans two states and two zones).

Defaulting to the earlier zone is the conservative move. If a number could be Central or Mountain, treat it as Central so your 8 a.m. start doesn't turn into a 7 a.m. call to someone in the Central zone.

Number portability is a live compliance gap. A 212 number today might belong to someone who moved to Los Angeles years ago. ^[3] Pure area-code time-zone logic fails for ported numbers. A serious cold call operation needs phone validation tooling, not a CSV full of area codes.

How does the TSR call-time rule compare to TCPA call-time rules?

The TCPA, at 47 U.S.C. § 227, directs the FCC to write rules restricting telephone solicitations. The FCC's implementing rules at 47 CFR § 64.1200 mirror the TSR's 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window for telephone solicitations. ^[2] At the federal level, both statutes land on the same hours.

What splits them is who enforces and whether a private plaintiff can sue.

Feature	TSR (FTC)	TCPA (FCC)
Enforcing agency	Federal Trade Commission	FCC / private plaintiffs
Call-time window	8 a.m., 9 p.m. local	8 a.m., 9 p.m. local
Per-violation penalty	Up to $51,744 [4]	$500, $1,500 per call [2]
Private right of action	No (FTC enforces)	Yes (anyone can sue)
Applies to texts	No (TSR is voice-focused)	Yes (autodialed SMS)

The TCPA's private right of action drives the class actions you read about. The TSR drives FTC enforcement, which tends toward large aggregate settlements rather than individual suits. Both can sink a small company. A what is cold calling in sales question almost always leads back here: the moment you place an outbound promotional call, both regimes bite.

One place the TSR reaches further: it governs both the seller and the telemarketer as separate legal parties. Hire a third-party call center that breaks the call-time rule, and you, the seller, can still be on the hook. ^[1]

Which states have stricter call-time windows than the federal TSR?

Several states run tighter windows, and the stricter rule always wins. You comply with whichever standard protects the consumer more. ^[5]

State	Allowed calling hours	Statute/rule
California	8 a.m., 9 p.m. (same as federal)	Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17590
Florida	8 a.m., 9 p.m. (same as federal)	Fla. Stat. § 501.616
Indiana	9 a.m., 9 p.m. (one hour tighter in the morning)	IC 24-4.7-3-3 [8]
Maryland	8 a.m., 9 p.m. Mon, Sat; no calls Sunday	Md. Code, Com. Law § 14-2204 [11]
New Jersey	9 a.m., 9 p.m. (one hour tighter in the morning)	N.J. Admin. Code 13:45D-1.4
Oklahoma	9 a.m., 8 p.m. (two hours tighter combined)	Okla. Stat. tit. 15 § 775A.5 [10]
Texas	9 a.m., 9 p.m. (one hour tighter in the morning)	Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 302.101 [9]

This table is not exhaustive. Other states reference the federal standard by default but tack on Sunday restrictions or holiday carve-outs. Check your target states against each state AG's consumer protection office. State law shifts faster than the federal rule.

Florida stands out. Its 2021 FTSA (Florida Telephone Solicitation Act) amendments created a private right of action for Florida consumers who get autodialed calls or texts without proper consent. ^[6] It's not a call-time statute, but it stacks on top of the TSR for Florida contacts. Call Florida numbers and you need both TSR and FTSA compliance.

For multi-state outbound programs, build your dialer's time-window logic around the most restrictive applicable state rule, not the federal floor. In practice that usually means 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time covers most of your exposure.

What are the penalties for calling outside TSR-allowed hours?

The FTC can seek civil penalties up to $51,744 per violation of the TSR. ^[4] That figure moves periodically with inflation under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act. Each individual call to a consumer can count as its own violation.

Call-time cases rarely arrive alone. The FTC bundles them with Do Not Call violations, misrepresentation claims, and other TSR abuses. The result is settlements with aggregate penalties that run into the tens of millions. The FTC has obtained judgments against robocall operations exceeding $100 million, though most of that reflects the full sweep of TSR violations, not call times alone. ^[7]

The real risk for a small team isn't a headline action. It's the pattern. If your dialer places 500 calls outside the permitted window in a month because of one misconfigured time-zone setting, that's 500 potential violations. Even at a sliver of the statutory maximum, the math gets ugly fast.

State attorneys general can pile on. They bring parallel enforcement under their own telemarketing statutes, and those laws often let the AG seek additional civil penalties on top of anything federal. ^[5]

Does the TSR call-time rule apply to business-to-business calls?

Mostly no. The call-time restriction at 16 CFR § 310.4(c) targets calls to a person's residence. ^[1] Business-to-business telemarketing calls are generally exempt from the TSR's core provisions, call-time rules included, with a few exceptions.

The exceptions matter. If a business call lands on a person's home phone, even in a B2B context, you're arguably calling a residence. Sell goods or services that a sole proprietor uses personally as well as professionally, and the line blurs. The FTC has long applied a facts-and-circumstances test here, not a bright line.

For B2B calls to business numbers during normal business hours, the call-time rule doesn't formally apply. But calling a business at 6 a.m. or 11 p.m. still creates problems, practically if not legally. Most state telemarketing statutes mirror the B2B exemption, though they aren't uniform.

If your team runs ai cold calling at scale with predictive dialers aimed at business contacts, confirm the numbers on your list are actually business lines, not ported personal numbers. Portability makes the business/residential split harder to verify than it was ten years ago.

Are there any exceptions to the TSR call-time limits?

The TSR has narrow categorical exemptions from its coverage, but none that waive the call-time rule while leaving a call under TSR jurisdiction for everything else. Put plainly: if the TSR applies to your call at all, the 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window applies.

The TSR exempts certain calls from its coverage entirely. That includes calls by or on behalf of nonprofit organizations (with exceptions for some for-profit fundraisers), calls that don't involve a sale, and calls the consumer initiated. ^[1] These exemptions pull the call out of TSR jurisdiction altogether. They don't carve out a right to call after hours.

One near-exception in practice: if a consumer explicitly asks for a call at a specific time outside the permitted hours, some practitioners argue that counts as consent and waives the restriction. The FTC has never blessed that reading, and I wouldn't lean on it without specific legal counsel. The statute has no express language allowing consumer-requested after-hours calls the way some TCPA consent doctrines do.

The safest read: treat 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. as a hard floor with no exceptions for outbound sales calls.

How should you configure your dialer to stay inside legal call hours?

This is where compliance lives or dies. A policy document that says 'we only call 8 to 9' does nothing if your dialer's time-zone logic is wrong or your list isn't scrubbed for geography.

Here's what a working setup looks like:

1. Phone-number-to-geography mapping. Use a real-time lookup service that maps current subscriber location, more than the area code. Neustar (now part of TransUnion) and Melissa offer number-to-location appends. Not free, but the cost per lookup runs to fractions of a cent.

2. Time-zone field on every contact record. Pull the mapped zone at list import, not at dial time. That lets you sort and schedule calls by zone before the campaign launches.

3. Dialer-level calling windows per time zone. Every major predictive dialer (Five9, NICE CXone, Genesys) supports configurable calling windows. Set them to the most restrictive applicable state rule for that zone, not the federal floor. If your dialer can't do time-zone-aware windows, get a different dialer.

4. Ambiguous number handling. Write a policy: when the zone is unknown, default to the narrowest legal window you use (say, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and flag the record for manual review before dialing.

5. Daylight saving transitions. A clock change can move a number from one effective zone to another. Audit your time-zone logic every March and November. This is a real, recurring gap that compliance teams forget every single year.

LeadCompliant's free phone compliance checker can flag numbers that are likely out-of-zone based on current location data, a useful first pass before you import a new list.

For teams building cold calling scripts and campaigns from scratch, baking time-zone logic into your pre-call checklist stops most of these problems before they become violations.

What records do you need to prove TSR call-time compliance?

The recordkeeping requirement at 16 CFR § 310.5 makes sellers and telemarketers keep records for 24 months. ^[1] Required records include advertising and promotional materials, prize-recipient information, sales records, employee records, and records of verifiable authorizations or express informed consent.

For call-time compliance specifically, keep:

• Timestamp logs for every outbound call, in UTC with the consumer's local time calculated and stored alongside.
• The source of the time-zone data used for each record (which lookup service, which date).
• Dialer configuration exports or screenshots showing the calling windows in effect during the campaign.
• Any consumer complaints about call timing, plus the investigation outcome.

FTC investigations usually open with a subpoena for call logs. If your logs don't show both UTC and local time, reconstructing compliance gets hard. Store local time at the moment of the call, calculated from the zone data you had at dial time. That's the cleanest approach.

24 months is the floor. If you operate where civil actions carry longer limitations periods, keep records longer. Some state telemarketing statutes run three or four years.

How does the TSR interact with the National Do Not Call Registry?

The National Do Not Call Registry and the call-time rule are two separate obligations under the TSR. A number on the DNC Registry does not extend your calling hours. Calling inside allowed hours does not waive the DNC obligation. You satisfy both, independently, on every call. ^[1]

Under 16 CFR § 310.4(b), it's an abusive telemarketing act to call any person whose number is on the DNC Registry, subject to exceptions for established business relationships, express written permission, and certain nonprofit calls. ^[1] The call-time rule lives one paragraph over, at § 310.4(c).

When auditors review a telemarketing operation, they pull both: call logs checked against the registry, timestamps checked against the local calling window. A clean DNC scrub does nothing for you if half your calls went out at 7:45 a.m.

The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule FAQ, published on ftc.gov, walks through both requirements and is worth bookmarking for your compliance team. ^[7]

What should small outbound sales teams do right now to audit their call-time compliance?

Most small teams have the policy right and the execution wrong. Here's an audit you can run this week without hiring a lawyer.

Step one: pull last month's call logs. Export every outbound call with the timestamp and the number dialed. If you have 10,000 rows, sort by timestamp and filter for calls placed before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in any zone. Even a correctly set dialer throws off configuration errors this check will catch.

Step two: check your time-zone data. Take a random sample of 50 numbers and run a current location lookup against one of the data providers above. Compare to what your list says. If 10 of 50 are wrong, you have a systematic problem.

Step three: check your target states against the table above. Call Indiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, or Texas numbers and your federal-compliant 8 a.m. start is already a violation. Fix your dialer windows.

Step four: document what you found and what you changed. If the FTC ever asks, a proactive internal audit and remediation is meaningful evidence of good faith. Not a complete defense, but it counts.

LeadCompliant's one-time compliance kit includes a call-time audit template and a state-by-state calling hours reference covering all 50 states, handy if your team has no internal compliance staff.

You don't need to be perfect. You need to be systematic. A documented, reasonable process for time-zone verification and dialer configuration does more for your legal position than an undocumented claim that 'we always follow the rules.' The cold calling definition matters less than the compliance infrastructure behind every dial.

Frequently asked questions

What time does the Telemarketing Sales Rule say you can start calling?

The TSR permits outbound telemarketing calls starting at 8:00 a.m. in the consumer's local time zone. Several states push that to 9:00 a.m., including Indiana, New Jersey, and Texas. Always use the consumer's time zone, never the caller's. If a list has ambiguous zones, default to the more restrictive start time until you can verify location.

What is the latest time you can call someone under the Telemarketing Sales Rule?

9:00 p.m. local time at the called party's location is the federal TSR cutoff. Oklahoma is the tightest common state exception, ending calls at 8:00 p.m. Maryland bars Sunday calls entirely. Always apply the most protective rule for the state where the consumer sits. A call placed one minute after the window closes is a violation.

The telemarketing sales rule prohibits calls made to consumers at what hours?

The telemarketing sales rule prohibits calls made to consumers before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. in the consumer's local time zone, under 16 CFR § 310.4(c). Each prohibited call counts as a separate violation. The FTC can seek civil penalties up to $51,744 per violation.

Does the TSR call-time rule apply to text messages?

No. The TSR's call-time restriction covers outbound telephone calls, not SMS. Text messages to consumers fall mainly under the TCPA and FCC rules. The FCC's rules at 47 CFR § 64.1200 apply an 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window to telephone solicitations broadly, and courts have applied similar logic to texts. State laws like the Florida FTSA add further SMS restrictions.

Can a consumer give permission to call them outside the TSR hours?

The FTC has not issued a clear safe harbor for consumer-consented after-hours calls. Some practitioners argue express permission waives the restriction, but the point is legally untested under the TSR. Until the FTC or a court settles it, treating the 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window as a hard limit is the safer position. Don't rely on an informal consumer request as a defense.

How does the TSR define 'local time at the called party's location'?

It means the current time in the geographic location where the consumer gets the call. Area codes are an unreliable proxy because of number portability. The practical standard is to use a current phone-to-location data service to identify the consumer's actual zone, then apply that zone's time. When the zone is uncertain, default to the one that produces the more restrictive calling window.

What happens if my telemarketer breaks the TSR call-time rules, not me directly?

You can still be held liable. The TSR imposes obligations on sellers and telemarketers both and lets the FTC pursue the seller for a telemarketer's violations when the seller knew or should have known of the conduct. Written contracts requiring TSR compliance are necessary but not sufficient. You need monitoring and audit rights to show you exercised oversight.

Does the TSR call-time rule apply to B2B calls?

The TSR's residential call-time restriction at 16 CFR § 310.4(c) applies to calls to a person's residence. Purely B2B calls to business numbers generally sit outside TSR scope. But calls to numbers that serve as both personal and business lines, or to sole proprietors at home, may fall under the residential rule. When in doubt, apply the restriction.

Is the TCPA call-time rule the same as the TSR call-time rule?

At the federal level, yes: both set an 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window. The differences are enforcement and liability. The TCPA allows private lawsuits at $500 to $1,500 per call, which creates class action risk. The TSR is enforced by the FTC with penalties up to $51,744 per violation but no private right of action. You comply with both at once.

How long do I have to keep call records to prove TSR compliance?

The recordkeeping requirement at 16 CFR § 310.5 mandates a minimum of 24 months for most records. For call-time compliance, store outbound call logs with timestamps showing both UTC and the consumer's local calculated time, the time-zone data source used, and dialer configuration records. Some state statutes of limitations run longer, so consider keeping records for four years in high-litigation states.

Do TSR call-time rules apply on weekends and holidays?

Yes. The federal TSR window of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. applies every day, weekends and federal holidays included. Some state rules add restrictions: Maryland bars calls on Sundays. Always check the state rules for your target markets. There is no federal holiday exception baked into the TSR.

What is the penalty for a single TSR call-time violation?

The FTC can seek up to $51,744 per violation, and each prohibited call can be counted separately. In practice, the FTC brings enforcement actions covering many violations at once, producing large aggregate settlements. Even one misconfigured campaign that places hundreds of early-morning calls can build six-figure exposure before a case is ever filed.

Does daylight saving time affect TSR call-time compliance?

Yes, and it's a real operational trap. When clocks change, the offset between your dialer's system clock and the consumer's local time shifts. If your time-zone data uses standard-time offsets without DST adjustment, you risk placing calls outside the legal window during transitions. Audit your dialer's time-zone logic every March and November to catch it.

What's the difference between the TSR and state telemarketing laws on call hours?

The federal TSR sets the floor at 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time. State laws can and do set stricter windows. Indiana, New Jersey, and Texas start at 9 a.m.; Oklahoma ends at 8 p.m.; Maryland bans Sunday calls. When state law is stricter, state law controls for calls into that state. Federal preemption doesn't apply here because the state laws are more protective of consumers.

Sources

1. FTC, Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 CFR Part 310: TSR 16 CFR § 310.4(c) prohibits outbound calls to residences outside 8 a.m.–9 p.m. local time; § 310.5 sets 24-month recordkeeping minimum; § 310.4(b) covers DNC obligations
2. FTC, Federal Trade Commission (civil penalty inflation adjustments, published in the Federal Register): TSR civil penalty maximum is $51,744 per violation, adjusted for inflation under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act
3. National Conference of State Legislatures, Telemarketing and Consumer Protection: Multiple states impose stricter call-time windows than the federal TSR; states can seek additional civil penalties under their own statutes
4. Florida Legislature, Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.616: Florida FTSA 2021 amendments created a private right of action for Florida consumers receiving autodialed calls or texts without proper consent
5. FTC, Telemarketing Sales Rule guidance and enforcement (Business Guidance, ftc.gov): FTC TSR guidance covers call-time and DNC requirements; FTC enforcement actions have resulted in aggregate judgments exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars
6. Indiana General Assembly, IC 24-4.7-3-3, Telephone Solicitation of Consumers: Indiana restricts telemarketing calls to 9 a.m.–9 p.m. local time, one hour tighter in the morning than federal TSR
7. Texas Legislature, Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 302.101: Texas restricts telemarketing calls to 9 a.m.–9 p.m. local time
8. Oklahoma State Courts Network, Okla. Stat. tit. 15 § 775A.5: Oklahoma restricts telemarketing calls to 9 a.m.–8 p.m. local time, two hours tighter combined than the federal TSR
9. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code, Com. Law § 14-2204: Maryland prohibits telemarketing calls on Sundays and restricts hours to 8 a.m.–9 p.m. Monday through Saturday
10. Cornell Legal Information Institute, 16 CFR Part 310 (Telemarketing Sales Rule): TSR covers both sellers and telemarketers; sellers can be held liable for telemarketer violations where they knew or should have known of the conduct