Florida FTSA mini-TCPA compliance for outbound teams

Last updated 2026-07-11

What is the Florida FTSA and how does it differ from the federal TCPA?

The Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (Fla. Stat. § 501.059) is the state's own telephone marketing law. It existed in a limited form for years. Then a 2021 amendment took effect on July 1, 2021 and turned it into what compliance people now call a "mini-TCPA," because it copies the federal TCPA in structure but adds requirements the federal law never had.

The federal TCPA (47 U.S.C. § 227) is the baseline most outbound teams already know. It restricts autodialed or prerecorded calls to cell phones without consent, requires Do Not Call scrubbing, and gives the FCC authority to enforce it. ^[1] Florida's FTSA does all of that, then raises the bar in ways that hit outbound sales hard.

Here is the short version of the differences:

Feature	Federal TCPA	Florida FTSA
Prior express written consent for autodialed cell calls	Required	Required
Prior express written consent for calls using recorded/artificial voice	Required	Required
Covers calls to Florida area codes regardless of caller's state	No (federal, applies nationally)	Yes
Private right of action per violation	Yes ($500, $1,500)	Yes ($500, $1,500)
"Autodialer" definition post-Facebook v. Duguid	Narrowed (must produce/store random or sequential numbers)	Broader: includes any system that dials without human intervention [2]
Time window for calls	8 AM, 9 PM recipient's local time	8 AM, 8 PM recipient's local time
Caller ID spoofing prohibition	FCC rules cover this	FTSA explicitly bans it

The autodialer gap is the one that bites teams the most. In 2021 the Supreme Court's Facebook v. Duguid decision narrowed the federal TCPA's autodialer definition to systems that generate or store numbers using a random or sequential number generator. ^[3] A lot of predictive and power dialers fell outside that definition federally. Florida did not follow. The FTSA covers any automated system that dials without human intervention at the time of each call, so the same dialer that passes federally is still a problem in Florida.

Who does the FTSA apply to? Does it cover companies outside Florida?

If you call or text a Florida phone number, the FTSA applies to you. Full stop. The statute covers "telephone solicitation" made to any person in Florida, and Florida courts and plaintiff attorneys read that to mean the location of the recipient's phone number, not your business address. ^[4]

Run your outbound team from Texas or Georgia, dial numbers with 305, 407, 561, or any other Florida area code, and Florida law governs those contacts. The 2021 amendment added no carve-out for out-of-state callers.

The FTSA defines a "telephone solicitor" broadly as anyone who makes or causes a telephone solicitation to be made. That sweeps in direct sellers, lead generators, and third-party dialers working for a business. Hand a list of Florida numbers to a call center vendor, and you and that vendor can both end up as defendants.

A few businesses are fully exempt: licensed securities dealers, newspaper publishers soliciting subscriptions, and calls made in response to a consumer's own inquiry. The charitable exemption is narrow and does not cover for-profit fundraising platforms. When you are unsure, assume you are covered.

What consent is required before calling or texting Florida phone numbers?

The FTSA requires "prior express written consent" before you make any automated call or text to a Florida cell phone number. Florida does not accept implied consent or an established business relationship (EBR) as a stand-in for written consent on automated contacts. ^[4]

Written consent under the FTSA must:

• Be in writing (electronic signatures and online check-boxes qualify under Florida's Electronic Signature Act)
• Clearly authorize the specific company to contact the consumer via telephone
• Disclose that the consumer is agreeing to receive autodialed or prerecorded calls or texts
• Include the phone number being consented to
• Not be a condition of buying a product or service

That last point comes straight from the federal TCPA framework, and it matters. A consent checkbox buried in a purchase flow that reads "by completing this order you agree to receive marketing calls" almost certainly fails, because it ties the transaction to consent.

For text message marketing, the standard is identical. You need prior express written consent before any marketing text goes out through an automated system to a Florida number. A single opt-in reply to a short code does not satisfy this unless the original prompt clearly disclosed what the consumer was agreeing to.

One practical note. Consent has to be documented and stored. If you get sued, you will need to produce a record showing the exact consent language, the date and time the consumer agreed, and the IP address or phone number tied to that agreement. Oral consent does not cut it for automated contacts.

What are the FTSA's call time restrictions and other operational rules?

Florida cuts off calling one hour earlier than the federal TCPA. Federal law allows calls from 8 AM to 9 PM in the recipient's local time zone. The FTSA stops automated calls and texts at 8 PM in the recipient's local time zone. ^[4] For a Florida Panhandle number in the Central zone, that means you stop at 7 PM your time if your team dials from the Eastern zone.

Other operational rules your team has to follow:

Caller ID disclosure. The FTSA bans any caller ID technology that misrepresents or hides the caller's identity or the company behind the call. Local presence dialing is fine, but the number has to connect back to you. Spoofed numbers that lead nowhere violate the statute.

Do Not Call scrubbing. Florida runs its own Do Not Call list on top of the federal registry. Telemarketers calling Florida consumers must scrub against both the Florida list and the national do not call list before dialing. ^[5] The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services manages the state list, and registered telemarketers get access.

Required disclosures at the start of each call. Within the first 60 seconds of a solicitation call, you must state the name of the person calling, the company on whose behalf the call is made, and a phone number where that company can be reached during normal business hours.

Recorded message disclosures. If the call uses a prerecorded message, the recording has to state the business name and phone number at the start.

What are the FTSA penalties, and how do they compare to federal TCPA penalties?

The FTSA gives individual consumers a private right of action for $500 per violation, trebling to $1,500 if the violation is willful or knowing. ^[4] That matches the federal TCPA range exactly. What makes Florida dangerous is the mix of a broader autodialer definition and how fast violations stack up inside a single campaign.

One blast text to 10,000 Florida numbers without proper consent is 10,000 separate violations. At $500 each, that is $5 million in statutory damages before trebling. There is no cap at the individual claim level, and class actions are allowed.

Florida's plaintiff bar moved fast. Right after the 2021 amendment passed, courts in the Middle and Southern Districts of Florida saw a wave of FTSA filings. ^[9] Some defendants settled early in class contexts; others fought and faced larger exposure. The FTSA does not require actual damages, so a consumer who suffered no financial harm from an unwanted text can still collect $500 per message.

The federal TCPA also allows $500 to $1,500 per violation, but the narrowed autodialer definition after Facebook v. Duguid means fewer dialers trigger liability federally. Teams that assumed they were clear after that ruling, then kept dialing Florida numbers without a Florida-specific consent process, learned the difference the expensive way.

For a sense of how aggregate exposure scales when a single campaign touches millions of contacts, the cash app tcpa class action settlement and the credit one tcpa settlement show the math in practice.

How does the FTSA's autodialer definition differ from the federal definition after Facebook v. Duguid?

This is the single biggest trap for teams that think they fixed their compliance after the 2021 Supreme Court ruling. They fixed it for federal law. Florida is a separate problem.

In Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 592 U.S. 395 (2021), the Court held that an autodialer under the federal TCPA must have the capacity to produce telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator. ^[3] A system that just dials from a stored list without generating numbers randomly does not qualify federally. That gutted a large share of TCPA cases built on predictive dialers. The Court's own words: the statute covers equipment with "the capacity to use a random or sequential number generator to either store or produce phone numbers to be called."

Florida's FTSA does not use that language. Florida Statute § 501.059 reaches any automated system for the selection or dialing of telephone numbers, meaning technology that dials without a human pressing a button for each individual call at the moment it is placed. ^[4] That sweeps in predictive dialers, power dialers, and click-to-call systems where the agent is not manually dialing each number.

So a power dialer that jumps to the next number in the queue after an agent hangs up is likely covered by the FTSA, even though it probably is not an autodialer under the post-Facebook federal definition. If your team uses any dialing technology other than a human literally typing each number one at a time, treat it as an autodialer for Florida.

Some plaintiff attorneys push an even broader reading, arguing that platforms sending templated SMS via an API count as automated systems under the FTSA. Courts in the Southern District of Florida have wrestled with it. The safe position is to assume any API-driven SMS platform is covered.

What does FTSA compliance look like for an outbound sales team day to day?

FTSA compliance is not a one-time checkbox. It changes how you collect leads, how you segment your list, and how you run your dialer. Here is what that looks like in practice.

Lead intake. Every web form, landing page, or offline source that feeds Florida numbers into your queue needs written consent language that meets the FTSA standard. The box cannot be pre-checked. The disclosure has to sit in plain language next to the field where the consumer enters their phone number. Buy leads from a list vendor, and you need a written representation that the Florida consumers on that list gave FTSA-compliant consent. Stay skeptical about whether that representation is true.

List segmentation. Flag Florida area codes (and any record where the consumer's state of residence is Florida) before they hit your dialing queue. FTSA rules apply to those records and have to be enforced separately from your federal scrubbing.

DNC scrubbing. Scrub against both the national DNC registry and the Florida state list before each campaign. Florida requires telemarketers to register with the state and pay a fee for list access. Not registered? Fix that first. The registration and access process is covered at how do i get the do not call list.

Call times. Hard-block any Florida number from being dialed after 8 PM in its local time zone. For 850 area code numbers in the Panhandle on Central time, no calls after 8 PM Central, which is 7 PM your time in the Eastern zone.

Dialer configuration. Using a predictive or power dialer for Florida numbers likely means you are covered by the FTSA's automated system definition. Get prior express written consent in hand before that dialer touches a Florida cell number.

Record retention. Keep consent records for at least four years, matching the four-year statute of limitations for claims under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act framework. Your records need the exact disclosure text, the timestamp, and the phone number or IP address tied to each consent.

LeadCompliant's free compliance kit has a consent language template and a Florida checklist that walks through each step if you want a starting framework.

For a wider view of how cold calling fits multi-state compliance, the mechanics are similar, but Florida sits near the top of the risk list because of how much litigation happens there.

Does the FTSA cover SMS and text message marketing to Florida numbers?

Yes. The FTSA explicitly covers unsolicited text messages alongside voice calls, and it applies the same prior express written consent requirement to both. ^[4]

A text counts as a telephone solicitation if it is sent to encourage a consumer to buy goods or services, or to join a contest, sweepstakes, or investment. That definition is wide enough to catch most outbound marketing texts.

The consent requirement for texts matches the one for calls. You need written consent that specifically discloses the consumer agrees to receive automated text messages, names the company sending them, and includes the phone number being opted in. A generic "contact me" form that never mentions texts, or never mentions automated messages, does not qualify.

Texts also have to obey the 8 AM to 8 PM window in the recipient's local time zone. A scheduled SMS blast that fires at 8:30 PM Eastern to a Tallahassee number is an FTSA violation.

One more thing. Florida's mobile phone do not call list scrubbing applies to texts as much as calls. Any Florida number on the state or national registry that has not affirmatively consented should not get your messages.

There is no "transactional text" safe harbor in the FTSA the way some read the federal TCPA. If a text carries any promotional element alongside a transactional one, treat it as a marketing text under the full consent requirement.

What defenses exist if your company is sued under the FTSA?

The strongest defense is written consent. Produce a timestamped record showing the consumer agreed to automated calls or texts from your company, and most FTSA claims fail on the merits. The burden to prove consent falls on the defendant, so document everything.

The second defense is the established business relationship (EBR) exception for calls made without automation. If a human agent manually dials each number with no automated system involved, the consent requirements ease up (though DNC scrubbing still applies). The catch is defining "manual" strictly enough to hold up. Courts have not been kind to defendants who called their dialer manual when it had automated components.

The FTSA has a bona fide error defense. If the violation happened despite procedures reasonably designed to prevent it, and the company can show those procedures existed, it may dodge treble damages. That is a defense to tripling, not to liability. You still owe $500 per violation if you lose.

Some defendants have argued federal law preempts certain FTSA claims, especially after Facebook v. Duguid. Courts have mostly rejected broad preemption, on the theory that states can impose requirements more restrictive than federal law as long as they do not conflict with it. ^[6][9]

Settlement is common. Given the per-violation exposure and the availability of class actions, most defendants without solid consent records settle. Amounts vary widely with class size and the strength of the consent records. There is no reliable public data on average settlement amounts for pure FTSA claims (as distinct from federal TCPA settlements), so treat any single number you hear as anecdote, not benchmark.

How should outbound teams handle consent when buying leads or working with lead generators?

This is where small outbound teams get burned most. They buy a list, assume the lead generator handled consent, and start dialing. Then a lawsuit lands, and they find out the lead generator used vague consent language, resold the same leads to eight other buyers, or captured consent for a completely different purpose.

The FTSA does not care that you bought in good faith. The company that made the call is liable. The lead generator may be liable too, and you may have a contractual indemnification claim against them, but none of that stops the consumer's suit against you.

Before you dial any purchased or rented list of Florida numbers, get in writing from the lead generator:

• The exact consent language shown to consumers on the Florida numbers in the list
• The date consent was captured for each record
• A representation that consent was captured for your specific company or category of service (more than a generic "partner companies" disclosure)
• A representation that the list was scrubbed against the Florida and national DNC registries

If the lead generator cannot hand over that documentation, do not use the list for automated contacts in Florida. You can still put human agents on it with manual dialing and full disclosures, but keep those numbers off your predictive dialer.

For how DNC scrubbing works at the list level, do not call telemarketer list explains the registration and access process for telemarketers.

What should outbound teams do right now to reduce FTSA risk?

If you have been dialing Florida numbers without an FTSA-specific process, here is the order of operations I would run.

First, stop using your autodialer on Florida cell numbers until you have confirmed consent records for each contact. Dialing while you know you lack compliant consent turns every call into a willful violation, which means $1,500 instead of $500. Stop the bleeding first.

Second, audit your consent records. Pull every Florida record in your CRM and check for FTSA-compliant written consent. "Compliant" means written, specific to your company, specific to automated contacts, and not a condition of purchase. Anything failing all four tests moves to a manual-dial-only queue or gets suppressed.

Third, update your lead intake forms. Every form that feeds Florida numbers into an automated queue needs compliant consent language added now. Run it past your attorney. Updating a web form costs almost nothing next to a single FTSA class action.

Fourth, register with the Florida DNC program if you have not. Florida telemarketers must register with the state and pay an annual fee to reach the Do Not Call list. ^[5] Operating without that registration is a separate violation.

Fifth, configure your dialer to block Florida numbers after 8 PM local and before 8 AM local.

Sixth, train your team. Callers need to disclose their name, the company name, and a callback number within the first 60 seconds. Lock that into your scripts and training.

LeadCompliant's free compliance kit includes a Florida checklist and consent language template you can hand to operations or outside counsel as a starting point. You can also use the free TCPA tools on the site to check numbers against do not call list databases before you dial.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Florida FTSA apply to B2B calls, or only consumer calls?

The FTSA covers "telephone solicitation" broadly, focused on calls to residential and wireless numbers. A call to a business's main line for a genuine B2B purpose carries lower risk, but the FTSA has no explicit B2B exemption. If you are calling a cell phone belonging to a Florida individual, even a business contact, the conservative move is to treat it as covered and get written consent before autodialing it.

Can I use a ringless voicemail (RVM) to Florida numbers without FTSA consent?

Probably not safely. Ringless voicemails drop straight into a voicemail inbox, but Florida's FTSA covers prerecorded messages made to any telephone number. The FCC has signaled RVMs may count as "calls" under the federal TCPA, and Florida courts have not carved out an exemption. Until clear Florida authority excludes RVMs, treat them like autodialed calls and require prior express written consent.

What is the statute of limitations for FTSA claims?

FTSA claims brought under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA) framework carry a four-year statute of limitations. A consumer can sue you for a call or text made up to four years earlier. Keep consent records, call logs, and scrub documentation for at least four years so you can defend any claim inside that window.

How do I register as a telemarketer in Florida?

Florida telemarketers register with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) and pay a registration fee. You also register to access the Florida Do Not Call list for scrubbing. Fee tiers depend on your operation's size, and requirements change, so confirm the current amount on the FDACS site at fdacs.gov before you file.

Does the FTSA's 8 PM cutoff apply to time zones other than Eastern?

Yes. The cutoff runs on the recipient's local time, not yours. Florida is mostly Eastern, but the Panhandle counties west of the Apalachicola River (including Pensacola) sit on Central time. For those 850 area code numbers on Central time, calls stop at 8 PM Central, which is 9 PM Eastern. Configure your dialer by area code and time zone, not by your office clock.

Is a prior business relationship (EBR) a valid defense to FTSA claims?

No, not for automated contacts. The FTSA does not accept an established business relationship as a substitute for prior express written consent when you use an automated dialing system or prerecorded message. An EBR may matter for manual calls in limited cases, but for any automated outbound contact to a Florida cell number, written consent is required whether or not the consumer has bought from you before.

If a Florida consumer revokes consent, how quickly must I honor it?

The FTSA sets no precise window, but the FCC reads the federal TCPA to require honoring revocation "within a reasonable time," and the FCC's 2024 order capped that at 10 business days for list-level opt-out requests. ^[8] Florida tracks analogous standards. In practice, a revocation should suppress the number from your automated queue immediately. Do not wait for a month-end batch update.

What counts as "prior express written consent" under the FTSA, exactly?

Under the FTSA and the federal TCPA framework it mirrors, written consent must be in writing or a valid electronic signature, clearly authorize the specific company to call or text, disclose that the consumer agrees to autodialed or prerecorded contacts, include the specific phone number, and not be a condition of any purchase. A checkbox next to the phone field, with clear plain-language disclosure, generally meets the standard when all five elements are present.

Can I cold call Florida numbers manually without triggering the FTSA?

Manual calls, where a human dials each number individually with no automated system involved, carry fewer FTSA restrictions. You still scrub against Florida and national DNC lists, disclose the caller's name and company in the first 60 seconds, call only between 8 AM and 8 PM local, and avoid spoofed caller IDs. The written consent requirement is specific to automated systems and prerecorded messages, not live manual agents. See more on cold call compliance.

Does the FTSA cover texts sent from a human agent's personal cell phone?

Probably not under the automated system provision, if the agent truly types and sends each text by hand with no automation. But use any app, CRM integration, or platform to schedule, send, or manage texts at scale, and you risk it being treated as an automated system. The line is hard to draw, and plaintiff attorneys push for a broad reading. Avoid gray-area tools and get written consent anyway.

What happens if my lead vendor's consent language does not meet FTSA standards?

You are exposed. The FTSA holds the company that made the call or sent the text liable regardless of who collected consent. If a vendor's consent form was too vague, expired, or covered a different product category, the lack of valid consent flows through to you. Your indemnification claim against the vendor is a separate fight that takes years. The only real protection is reviewing vendor consent language before you dial, not after you get sued.

Are there any FTSA exemptions for nonprofits or charities?

The FTSA exempts calls made by or on behalf of a bona fide nonprofit charitable organization soliciting donations, provided the organization itself makes the call and holds registered status. It does not cover for-profit companies hired to fundraise for nonprofits, and it does not cover nonprofits using automated dialers to sell products or promote commercial partners. The exemption is narrow. If you monetize the call in any way, do not rely on it.

How does FTSA enforcement compare to FCC enforcement of the federal TCPA?

The FTSA runs mostly on private lawsuits rather than state agency action, though the Florida Attorney General has authority to bring cases. The FCC enforces the federal TCPA, but individual enforcement there is also driven mainly by private suits. The practical difference: Florida's plaintiff bar is active and well-funded, and the broader autodialer definition means more defendants face viable claims in Florida than federally after Facebook v. Duguid.

Sources

1. Cornell Legal Information Institute, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (Telephone Consumer Protection Act): Federal TCPA restricts autodialed or prerecorded calls to cell phones without consent and mandates Do Not Call compliance under 47 U.S.C. § 227
2. Florida Legislature, Fla. Stat. § 501.059 (Florida Telephone Solicitation Act): Florida FTSA defines automated system broadly to include any technology that dials without human intervention at the moment of each call; imposes $500, $1,500 per-violation private right of action; restricts calls to 8 AM, 8 PM local time
3. U.S. Supreme Court, Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 592 U.S. 395 (2021): Supreme Court held that an autodialer under the federal TCPA must use a random or sequential number generator; narrowed the federal definition significantly
4. Florida Legislature, Fla. Stat. § 501.059 (2021 amendment effective July 1, 2021): FTSA 2021 amendment added prior express written consent requirement for automated contacts, covered unsolicited texts, prohibited caller ID spoofing, and set $500, $1,500 statutory damages per violation
5. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Do Not Call Program (fdacs.gov): Florida maintains a state Do Not Call list; telemarketers must register with FDACS and scrub against the list before calling Florida consumers
6. Cornell Legal Information Institute, 47 U.S.C. § 227(f) (state law non-preemption under the TCPA): States may impose requirements more restrictive than the federal TCPA without conflict preemption; the TCPA expressly preserves stricter state law
7. FTC, National Do Not Call Registry business guidance (ftc.gov): National DNC registry access requirements for telemarketers; separate from the Florida state list
8. Cornell Legal Information Institute, FCC robocall/robotext consent regulations, 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200: FCC's 2024 order requires telemarketers to honor consent revocation within a reasonable time, with 10 business days as the maximum for list-level opt-out requests
9. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (ca11.uscourts.gov): Florida federal courts in the Middle and Southern Districts saw increased FTSA filings following the 2021 amendment; courts have generally rejected federal preemption arguments against FTSA claims
10. Florida Legislature, Chapter 501 (Florida Telemarketing statutes and FDUTPA): FTSA claims may be brought under the FDUTPA framework, carrying a four-year statute of limitations under Florida law