DNC registry rules: what every outbound team must know

Last updated 2026-07-09

What is the National DNC Registry and who runs it?

The National Do Not Call Registry is a federal database that lets consumers block most telemarketing calls by listing their phone numbers. The Federal Trade Commission runs the registry under the Telemarketing Sales Rule (16 CFR Part 310). The Federal Communications Commission enforces parallel rules for telephone solicitations under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 USC 227). Both agencies share jurisdiction, so breaking one set of rules usually breaks the other at the same time. ^[1][2]

The registry launched in 2003. As of fiscal year 2023, the FTC reported more than 249 million actively registered numbers. ^[1] That figure alone should make any outbound team read the rest of this page carefully.

Consumers register for free at donotcall.gov or by calling 1-888-382-1222. Registration never expires. The FTC dropped the old five-year expiration in 2008. A number registered in 2004 is still protected today unless the consumer takes it off themselves.

For how the registry fits into the wider do-not-call picture, see our guide to the do not call list.

Which calls does the DNC Registry actually prohibit?

The registry covers "telephone solicitations." The statute at 47 USC 227(a)(4) defines that phrase as "the initiation of a telephone call or message for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services." That language covers nearly every outbound sales call you'd want to make. ^[3]

The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule bars sellers and telemarketers from calling a number in the registry unless the seller has an established business relationship with the person, the person gave prior express invitation or permission, or the call falls outside the rule entirely. ^[4]

Plain version: if a number is on the registry and no exemption applies, you cannot legally call it. Full stop.

The ban reaches beyond live voice. Prerecorded messages count. So do marketing texts, which the FCC treats as "calls" under the TCPA. The registry's reach is wider than most teams assume. ^[2]

What the registry does not cover: purely informational calls with no sales pitch, calls to businesses, emergency calls, and calls from tax-exempt nonprofits soliciting on their own behalf. Political calls sit outside the FTC's TSR too, though some state laws pull them back in.

How often must sellers scrub their lists against the registry?

Every 31 days. That's the number teams get wrong. The FTC rule requires sellers and telemarketers to access the registry and scrub their call lists at least every 31 days. ^[4] Not "monthly." Thirty-one calendar days. If you pulled the data on June 1 and it's now July 3, you're overdue and exposed.

The same 31-day cycle governs how fast you have to honor a fresh registration. A newly registered number becomes protected within 31 days of signup. Someone registers today, and you have at most 31 days before a call to them turns into a violation. Careful teams build a buffer and treat new registrations as effective the moment they appear.

Subscribers accessing the registry for commercial use register at telemarketing.donotcall.gov, pay the fee (covered below), and download the data for their area codes. The FTC never pushes updates to you. Pulling the data on schedule is your job, not theirs. ^[1]

For the mechanics of downloading and applying the data, our article on how to get the do not call list walks through it step by step.

What exemptions exist, and how long do they last?

Three exemptions let you legally call a DNC-registered number. None is as generous as sellers wish.

Established Business Relationship (EBR). Under the FTC's TSR, an EBR exists when a consumer made a purchase, rental, or payment with the seller within the past 18 months, or made an inquiry or submitted an application within the past 3 months. ^[4] Once those windows close, the EBR is gone and the DNC registration takes over again. The FCC applies a similar but not identical EBR standard under the TCPA.

Express written consent. If the consumer gave clear written consent (electronic counts) to receive calls from that specific seller, the DNC listing doesn't block those calls. Consent is seller-specific. A consumer who agreed to hear from Company A did not agree to hear from Company B, even if B bought A's lead list. Courts have been strict on this.

Personal relationship. Calls to family, friends, or acquaintances are exempt. Useless for a sales team, but it's on the books.

Here's the trap teams fall into. An EBR under the FTC's TSR does not satisfy the TCPA's rule for autodialed or prerecorded calls to cell phones. Those calls need separate prior express written consent no matter what business relationship exists. The rules stack. They don't substitute for each other. ^[2][3]

How much does accessing the DNC Registry cost?

The FTC sets access fees each year. For fiscal year 2025, the fee is $79 per area code per year, capped at $18,538 for access to all area codes nationwide. ^[1] Five area codes or fewer are free, which gives a small local operation a zero-cost path to compliance.

Here's how the fee schedule plays out:

Area codes needed	Annual cost (FY2025)
1 to 5	Free
6	$79
10	$395
25	$1,185
50	$2,555
All (~270)	$18,538 (cap)

You pay for access to the data, not per number scrubbed. A company calling every U.S. area code pays the same flat cap whether it has 10,000 numbers or 10 million on its list. Against the penalty exposure, that cap is cheap.

Plenty of teams hand the scrub to a third-party data provider or dialer that keeps a current subscription. That's fine operationally. Legally, the seller still owns compliance. If the vendor's data is stale, the violation is yours.

What are the penalties for calling a DNC-registered number?

One bad campaign can put a small company underwater. That's the short answer, and the numbers back it up.

The FTC can seek civil penalties up to $50,120 per violation under the TSR, a figure the agency adjusts for inflation each year (it was $43,792 in 2019 and has climbed since). ^[5] The FCC can impose forfeitures up to $23,727 per violation under the TCPA. ^[6] Both agencies can pile into the same case.

The TCPA also gives consumers a private right of action. They can sue for $500 per violation, or up to $1,500 per willful violation, with no cap on class size. ^[3] Class actions are the real money risk for most outbound teams. A campaign that makes 50,000 calls to registered numbers without consent can generate class claims above $75 million before any trebling.

Enforcement is steady, not rare. In 2019, the FTC and state partners secured a $61 million judgment (later partly suspended) against a company for illegal calls to registered numbers. TCPA class settlements in the seven and eight figures show up in federal dockets every year. The FTC's enforcement pages list dozens of actions annually. ^[5]

"I didn't know" is not a defense. Sellers are presumed to know the registry exists and to follow it.

See our breakdown of DNC registry enforcement and the FTC's role for how investigations actually unfold.

Do DNC rules apply to cell phones and text messages?

Yes, with a wrinkle. Cell numbers can sit on the National DNC Registry just like landlines, and the same calling limits apply to voice calls. ^[7] The TCPA then adds a second layer for cell phones: even if a number isn't on the registry, autodialed or prerecorded calls or texts to a cell phone need prior express written consent. That requirement lives independent of the registry.

Marketing texts count as "calls" under the TCPA, per FCC rules. So texting a registered cell number for marketing without consent breaks both the TCPA and the TSR at once.

The FCC clarified in its 2015 omnibus TCPA ruling that giving a business your cell number implies consent to informational calls but not to marketing calls. Marketing needs prior express written consent, and the ruling reaffirmed the strict version of that standard. ^[8]

For how cell numbers interact with the registry, see our guide on the mobile phone do not call list.

How do state DNC laws interact with the federal registry?

Many states run their own Do Not Call registries and telemarketing laws alongside the federal rules. States can be stricter than federal law. They cannot be more permissive. ^[9] Scrubbing against the federal registry alone is not enough if you call into a state with its own list.

Florida. Florida keeps its own DNC registry under the Florida Telemarketing Act and the Florida Do Not Call Act (Chapter 501, Part IV, Florida Statutes). The state rules add call-time limits and per-call penalties. ^[9] Our Florida do not call list article covers the specifics.

Indiana. Indiana maintains a separate state registry through the Office of the Attorney General. Sellers calling Indiana consumers scrub against both the federal and state lists. See our Indiana do not call list guide.

Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania's Telemarketer Registration Act makes telemarketers register with the state and follow its own DNC rules. See do not call list PA for details.

Some third-party vendors sell combined federal-plus-state scrub files, which cuts the manual work. Beyond registries, many states also set their own call-time limits, telemarketer registration rules, and disclosure duties that differ from the federal baseline. Check the states you actually call.

What are the specific call time restrictions under DNC rules?

The FTC's TSR limits outbound telemarketing to 8 a.m. through 9 p.m. local time at the called party's location. ^[4] That's the consumer's time zone, not yours. A team in California cannot start dialing New York numbers at 5 a.m. Pacific just because the clock reads 8 a.m. on the east coast.

The FCC's TCPA rules set the same 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window at the called party's location for telephone solicitations. ^[6]

Calling outside those hours is a separate violation from calling a registered number. A single call that breaks both rules gives you two independent legal problems.

Here's the nuance that trips teams up. "Local time at the called party's location" means you need the actual time zone of the number you're dialing. Area codes don't map cleanly to time zones. Numbers ported between carriers can carry an area code that no longer matches where the person lives. Guessing the time zone from the area code alone builds risk into every call.

What records must sellers keep to demonstrate DNC compliance?

Both the FTC and FCC expect you to document that you accessed the registry, when you scrubbed, and how you got consent for any registered number you called. Records win these cases. Their absence loses them.

The FTC's TSR expects sellers to keep records of their registry subscriptions, including the access date and the area codes pulled. For consent-based calls to registered numbers, keep the consent record: date, method, the exact language the consumer agreed to, and the consumer's identity. The TSR generally calls for a 24-month retention period for relevant documents. ^[4]

For text and autodialed campaigns, the FCC expects the same kind of documentation for express written consent. The record should be specific enough to show the consumer agreed to hear from that seller about that kind of content.

In litigation, the burden shifts fast. Once a plaintiff shows their number was on the registry and they got a call, you have to produce evidence of a valid exemption or eat statutory damages. Sellers with clean records defend these cases. Sellers with nothing almost always settle.

LeadCompliant's compliance kit includes a DNC scrub log template and a consent record format that match what courts and investigators ask for in real enforcement actions.

To generate complaints about violations you've received, our do not call list report guide covers the FTC complaint process.

How does the company-specific Do Not Call list work alongside the national registry?

Even for numbers that aren't on the national registry, you carry a separate duty: keep your own internal Do Not Call list and honor it. ^[4][6]

When a consumer asks you not to call again, add the number to your internal list within a reasonable time (the FTC expects a prompt turnaround; the FCC allows up to 30 days) and then leave that number alone for at least five years. Calling someone who asked you to stop is a violation whether or not their number sits on the national registry.

The internal duty usually runs entity-wide. If a consumer tells one division to stop, the other divisions of the same company are typically bound too, especially where they share a name or brand. Courts have found affiliate liability where related companies shared branding but argued the consumer only opted out from one entity.

Sellers who buy a do not call telemarketer list from a vendor still keep their internal list on their own. The two duties don't merge.

A clean mental model has three layers: the national registry, any applicable state registries, and your internal list. A number is off-limits the moment it lands on any one of the three.

What should an outbound team's DNC compliance process actually look like?

A process that survives scrutiny has a handful of parts you can't skip.

First, registry access on a documented schedule. Pull the data at least every 31 days. Log the date, the area codes accessed, and who ran the pull. Don't lean on memory or a vendor's word without written confirmation of their scrub dates.

Second, a real-time or daily internal DNC check. Every opt-out goes on the internal list the same day it comes in. Before any call or text, the number runs against both the registry data and the internal list. A system that lets calls fire before the suppression list gets checked is a hole waiting to be found.

Third, documented consent wherever you rely on it. If you're calling registered numbers under an EBR or a consent exemption, the proof has to exist before the call, not after. Rebuilding consent records once a complaint lands doesn't work and tends to make you look worse.

Fourth, call-time enforcement inside the dialer. Hard-code the 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local-time window. Base the time zone on the number itself, more than the area code.

Fifth, training. Anyone who builds call lists, runs dialers, or handles opt-outs should be able to explain the basic rules from memory. At fast-growing companies, compliance blowups usually trace back to one person who didn't know the rules loading numbers into a campaign without a check.

For a structured starting point, the government do not call list resource explains the official FTC access portal and its documentation requirements.

Frequently asked questions

How do I register my number on the National DNC Registry?

Register any phone number free at donotcall.gov or by calling 1-888-382-1222. Registration is permanent. The number becomes protected from most telemarketing calls within 31 days of signup. You can register multiple numbers in one session online. Registrations never expire, so you only register again if you change phone numbers.

Does the DNC Registry cover business-to-business calls?

No. The National DNC Registry covers residential numbers and personal cell phones. Business-to-business telemarketing calls fall outside the registry's restrictions under the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule. Some states, though, extend protections to certain business lines through their own laws, so B2B callers should review the rules in the states they call.

Can I still call someone on the DNC Registry if they filled out a lead form?

Only if the consent was clear and specific to your company. A lead form creates an inquiry that can count as an EBR for up to three months under the FTC's TSR. But autodialed or prerecorded calls to cell phones need prior express written consent regardless of any EBR. The form should state, in plain language, that the consumer agrees to receive calls or texts from your company by name.

How long does an established business relationship exemption last?

Under the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, an EBR based on a transaction lasts 18 months from the last purchase or payment. An EBR based on an inquiry or application lasts three months from that inquiry. Once those windows close, the consumer's DNC registration controls again and you can't call without separate consent.

Do charities and nonprofits have to follow DNC Registry rules?

Tax-exempt nonprofits are exempt from the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule for their own charitable solicitation calls, so the DNC Registry's restrictions don't bind those calls. But if a nonprofit hires a for-profit telemarketer to call on its behalf, that telemarketer must follow the TSR. Political organizations and survey callers have their own exemptions, and state laws vary.

What happens if a consumer's number was on the registry but they gave me their number directly?

Handing you a number can create implied consent for the business context it was given in, but regulators draw a firm line between informational contact and marketing. For marketing calls to a registered cell phone using an autodialer, implied consent isn't enough. You need prior express written consent that specifically authorizes marketing calls or texts from your company.

Can a third-party lead vendor scrub the list for me and transfer that compliance obligation?

No. Sellers own their DNC compliance no matter the vendor setup. You can hire a vendor to run the scrub, but if their data is outdated or incomplete, the violation is yours. Get written confirmation from any vendor showing the date they last pulled the registry data and which area codes they included.

Is there a safe harbor for good-faith mistakes in DNC compliance?

The FTC's TSR includes a limited safe harbor for sellers who have procedures in place and call a registered number by mistake. To qualify, the seller must keep written procedures, train staff, maintain records, run a process to catch future errors, and show the violation wasn't intentional. The safe harbor is narrow and does nothing for a team with no documented process.

Does the DNC Registry apply to ringless voicemail drops?

This is genuinely unsettled, but the FCC has signaled that ringless voicemails delivered straight to voicemail are likely covered by the TCPA as prerecorded voice messages. If covered, DNC rules apply. Given the litigation risk, most careful teams treat ringless voicemail like a prerecorded call and apply the same consent and scrub standards.

How do I report a company that called my DNC-registered number?

File a complaint at reportfraud.ftc.gov or donotcall.gov. The FTC uses complaint data to spot patterns and build enforcement cases. You can also report to your state attorney general's office. A single complaint rarely triggers immediate action, but heavy complaint volume against one company routinely shows up in FTC and state AG investigations.

What is the difference between the FTC's DNC rules and the FCC's TCPA rules?

The FTC enforces the Telemarketing Sales Rule (16 CFR Part 310), which covers sellers and telemarketers and is mostly civil. The FCC enforces the TCPA (47 USC 227), which adds restrictions on autodialed calls, prerecorded messages, and texts to cell phones. Both apply to registered numbers. One call can break both rule sets at once, and both agencies can pursue the same company.

How much does it cost to access the National DNC Registry as a business?

The FTC charges $79 per area code per year for commercial access, capped at $18,538 for all area codes as of fiscal year 2025. Access to five or fewer area codes is free. Businesses access the registry through telemarketing.donotcall.gov and must re-access the data at least every 31 days to stay current.

Do DNC rules apply to calls made by artificial intelligence or automated systems?

Yes. In 2024 the FCC ruled that AI-generated voices in calls meet the definition of prerecorded or artificial voice messages under the TCPA. Such calls need prior express written consent before reaching any cell phone and can't go to registered numbers without a valid exemption. Using AI in the call creates no new exemption.

Sources

1. FTC, National Do Not Call Registry Data Book FY 2023: More than 249 million registered phone numbers as of FY2023; FY2025 access fee of $79 per area code with $18,538 national cap; five area codes or fewer free
2. U.S. Code, 47 USC 227, Telephone Consumer Protection Act: Definition of telephone solicitation at 47 USC 227(a)(4); private right of action at $500 per violation, up to $1,500 for willful violations
3. FTC, Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 CFR Part 310: Sellers must scrub call lists against the registry every 31 days; established business relationship exemption windows of 18 months (transaction) and 3 months (inquiry); 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local call time restriction; 24-month record retention; internal DNC list requirement
4. FTC, Do Not Call enforcement actions and press releases: Civil penalty up to $50,120 per violation; 2019 $61 million judgment against a company for illegal calls to registered numbers
5. FCC, TCPA rules and forfeiture penalties, 47 CFR Part 64: FCC forfeiture up to $23,727 per TCPA violation; 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local call time restriction; 30-day internal DNC list honoring requirement
6. FTC, Frequently Asked Questions about the National DNC Registry: Cell phone numbers can be registered on the National DNC Registry and receive the same protections as landlines
7. Florida Legislature, Florida Do Not Call Act, Chapter 501 Part IV Florida Statutes: Florida maintains its own Do Not Call registry with separate registration and per-call penalties under Chapter 501 Florida Statutes
8. FTC, Complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule: Safe harbor requirements for good-faith mistakes include written procedures, personnel training, record maintenance, and a documented process to prevent future errors