Illinois attorney general robocall and text message law explained

Last updated 2026-07-09

What laws govern robocalls and text messages in Illinois?

Illinois stacks two laws. On top sits the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 U.S.C. § 227), which the FCC enforces and which private plaintiffs can sue under ^[1]. Underneath is Illinois's own Automatic Telephone Dialers Act (ATDA), codified at 815 ILCS 305/1 through 305/35 ^[2]. The ATDA predates the TCPA by a few years. It has its own consent and disclosure rules, and some of them go further than federal law.

The Illinois Attorney General enforces the ATDA directly. The AG can investigate, subpoena records, and file civil lawsuits without waiting for a private plaintiff. The state also works with the FTC and FCC on multi-state robocall investigations, which has produced joint actions against high-volume dialers hitting Illinois residents ^[3].

The practical upshot for outbound sales teams is short: you have to comply with both. Meeting federal TCPA standards alone does not shield you from an Illinois AG action, and the reverse is true too. On any single point, the stricter rule wins.

What does the Illinois Automatic Telephone Dialers Act require?

The ATDA, 815 ILCS 305, bars any person or entity from using an automatic telephone dialing system to call or text Illinois numbers without prior consent ^[2]. The statute defines an autodialer broadly: equipment that can store or produce numbers and dial them without human intervention. Before you auto-dial or text someone in Illinois, you have to do five things.

1. Have their prior express consent to receive the communications. 2. Identify yourself at the start of every call (the individual's name, the business name, and a telephone number or address). 3. Disconnect within five seconds after the called party hangs up. 4. Never call before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the called party's local time. 5. Keep an internal do-not-call list and honor removal requests promptly.

That identification rule trips up more sales managers than any other. A vague company name is not enough. A callback number that dumps into a voicemail maze is not enough either. The disclosure has to point to a real, reachable contact ^[2].

The ATDA also bans abandoned calls. If you run a predictive dialer and the call connects but no agent picks up within two seconds of the called party's greeting, that is a violation. Each abandoned call counts on its own.

What penalties can the Illinois AG impose for robocall violations?

The ATDA lets the Attorney General seek a civil penalty of up to $50,000 per violation ^[2]. Per call, per text. Not per campaign. A single blast of 10,000 autodialed texts to unconsented numbers carries theoretical exposure of $500 million, though real settlements and judgments land far lower. The AG can also get injunctive relief, meaning a court order that shuts your dialing operation down.

Federal TCPA exposure runs alongside it. The TCPA's private right of action is $500 per negligent violation and $1,500 per willful violation ^[1]. Class actions are routine. A class of 100,000 texted consumers at $500 each hits $50 million fast. Illinois plaintiffs regularly stack TCPA class claims on top of ATDA claims in one suit.

The AG has also used the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (815 ILCS 505) as a second hook when a campaign's content is deceptive ^[11]. That statute carries its own civil penalties.

Illinois joins multi-state coalitions too. In 2021, a group of state attorneys general that included Illinois settled with Dish Network over telemarketing violations, and a separate federal case against Dish produced a judgment topping $280 million ^[3].

Here is how the main penalty figures stack up for an Illinois robocall violation.

Violation type	Law	Max per violation	Who can sue
Autodialed call or text without consent	ATDA, 815 ILCS 305	$50,000	Illinois AG
TCPA negligent violation	47 U.S.C. § 227	$500	Private plaintiff or FCC
TCPA willful violation	47 U.S.C. § 227	$1,500	Private plaintiff or FCC
Deceptive robocall content	IL Consumer Fraud Act, 815 ILCS 505	$50,000	Illinois AG
FCC forfeiture (commercial)	47 U.S.C. § 503(b)	$23,727 (2024 adjusted) [4]	FCC

Does Illinois require written consent for text messages?

Yes, for marketing texts. The TCPA's rules at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200 require prior express written consent before you send any autodialed or prerecorded advertising or telemarketing message to a wireless number ^[5]. Under that rule, prior express written consent means a written agreement (electronic counts) that clearly authorizes the autodialed calls or texts and includes the number being consented to, the name of the entity authorized to call, and a statement that consent is not a condition of purchase ^[5].

The ATDA does not separately define written consent, so the federal standard fills the gap for marketing texts. The ATDA's general prior-consent rule reaches wider than marketing, though. Even a purely informational text sent through an autodialer to a number the recipient never gave you can draw an ATDA claim.

Oral consent captured on an earlier call does not cut it for marketing texts in Illinois. Neither does checkbox consent buried in terms of service the person never opened. The FCC's one-to-one consent order, which took effect January 27, 2025, went further by requiring consent for one seller at a time, not a lead-generation form that bundles consent for dozens of companies ^[6].

If you buy leads and text those people, that 2025 rule is the biggest change in years. Read your vendor's consent language. If it says something like "I consent to be contacted by marketing partners," it is no longer valid consent for your texts ^[6].

How does the Illinois Do Not Call registry work alongside federal DNC rules?

Illinois runs no separate state DNC registry. Illinois residents register on the Federal Trade Commission's National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov ^[7]. The AG treats calls to registered numbers as violations of the ATDA, and coordinates with federal agencies on the national DNC rules.

For voice sales calls, scrub your list against the National DNC Registry before you dial. Federal law says you have to access the registry at least every 31 days for any area code you call ^[9]. Illinois then treats non-compliant calls to registered numbers as ATDA violations on top of Telemarketing Sales Rule exposure.

Text messages sent for telemarketing count too. The FTC has confirmed that unwanted telemarketing texts to DNC-registered numbers violate the Telemarketing Sales Rule ^[9]. The AG has used this against mass-texting operations.

The established business relationship (EBR) exemption is narrow. If someone bought from you in the prior 18 months, or made an inquiry in the prior 3 months, you can call a DNC-registered number ^[9]. But EBR never overrides a direct do-not-call request. Once someone tells your company to stop, you stop. No exception.

What is the Illinois AG's enforcement record on robocalls and texts?

The Illinois AG runs an active robocall program. The office takes consumer complaints about unwanted calls and texts, and high-complaint campaigns get flagged for investigation. Illinois sits on the multi-state Task Force on Illegal Robocalls, which has produced dozens of enforcement actions against dialers since 2019 ^[3].

A few Illinois-connected actions stand out.

In 2022, the FTC, joined by Illinois and other states, won a temporary restraining order against a Florida-based robocall operation tied to roughly 5 billion illegal robocalls. Illinois residents were among the millions on the receiving end ^[3].

The AG also goes after local operators. Small Illinois telemarketers blasting prerecorded pitches without consent have faced ATDA civil actions seeking tens of thousands per call. The office does not publish a full case database, so the complete enforcement picture is hard to audit from public sources alone.

The AG works with the FCC's Robocall Response Team and uses STIR/SHAKEN call authentication data to spot spoofed-number operations ^[10]. If your caller ID does not accurately reflect your originating number, that is a separate violation under the Truth in Caller ID provisions at 47 U.S.C. § 227(e) ^[1], and Illinois AG staff have flagged spoofed-caller cases in public statements.

Does Illinois have special rules for political robocalls or charitable solicitations?

Yes, and the carve-outs are narrower than people hope. The TCPA exempts certain calls from political organizations, but that exemption only covers prerecorded voice calls to residential landlines, not autodialed calls or texts to wireless numbers ^[1]. A political campaign that blasts autodialed texts to cell phones without consent still faces TCPA and ATDA exposure.

Charities are not fully off the hook either. The ATDA's consent and identification rules apply to charitable calls, even though the federal TSR exempts charities from its telemarketing rules ^[9]. Several Illinois charity telemarketers have received ATDA warning letters from the AG for autodialing without consent.

Healthcare providers get a limited exemption for appointment reminders and health-related informational calls under the TCPA, but those calls still have to meet ATDA calling-hour and identification rules.

Running a political, charitable, or healthcare campaign with any autodialing gear? Do not assume you are exempt. The exemptions are narrow and technical. One text blast to wireless numbers without consent can erase any exemption you thought you had.

What should outbound sales teams do to stay compliant with Illinois robocall law?

Start with consent documentation. Every wireless number on your dialing list needs a record of how consent was obtained, when, and in what form. That record has to match the FCC's written-consent standard if you send marketing texts. A spreadsheet with names and no consent source is not a compliance system.

Scrub against the National DNC Registry before every campaign. If you use a third-party list, confirm the vendor scrubs against DNC at least monthly and indemnifies you for calls to registered numbers. Indemnification does not erase your liability. It just gives you a contractual way to recover costs.

Honor opt-outs fast. For texts, the CTIA guidelines that wireless carriers enforce by contract call for opt-out processing within a reasonable time, and most senders treat that as a same-day obligation ^[12]. The ATDA sets no specific opt-out clock, but the AG's enforcement posture reads slow opt-out processing as evidence of willfulness, which raises fines.

Log every opt-out with a timestamp and the channel it came in on. A written opt-out by email, a verbal opt-out on a recorded call, an SMS STOP reply: all of them go into the same suppression file, and all of them apply across channels.

For teams managing consent records and DNC scrubbing, LeadCompliant's free TCPA compliance kit includes consent documentation templates and a DNC scrub checklist built around both federal and Illinois rules. Tools like that exist because small teams rarely have the hours to build compliance infrastructure from scratch.

Train every agent who touches a dialer or SMS platform. The most common ATDA violation in small-team enforcement is not a rogue system. It is a person who re-imported a list that had already been suppressed, or who manually dialed a number after receiving an opt-out.

How does the TCPA interact with Illinois state law, and which is stricter?

The TCPA is a federal floor, not a ceiling. States can go stricter, and Illinois does in a few spots. The ATDA's $50,000-per-violation civil penalty for the AG dwarfs the TCPA's $500/$1,500 private right of action, though the FCC's own forfeiture authority under 47 U.S.C. § 503(b) reaches into the millions for large-scale violations ^[4].

The ATDA's identification rules (the individual caller's name, the business name, and a reachable contact at the start of every call) are more specific than 47 U.S.C. § 227 ^[2]. Federal law requires identification but does not require the individual caller's name for business calls. Illinois does.

Calling hours match: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time under both the federal TSR and the ATDA ^[2][9]. One area where the two laws line up cleanly.

Consent is where federal law has now pulled ahead. The FCC's 2025 one-to-one consent rule is more granular than anything the ATDA spells out. The ATDA says "prior consent" but never defines the seller-specific requirement the FCC now imposes ^[6]. On that point, the federal standard is the stricter one.

For the federal TCPA rules that sit under all of this, see our full guide on tcpa law.

What are Illinois consumers' rights when they receive illegal robocalls or texts?

Illinois residents can complain to the AG's office at illinoisattorneygeneral.gov, to the FTC at donotcall.gov, and to the FCC's complaint portal at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov ^[3][7]. The AG uses those complaints to find patterns and pick targets.

Individuals also have a private right of action directly under the TCPA. Section 227(b)(3) lets a person who gets an illegal autodialed call or text sue in state or federal court for $500 per violation, or up to $1,500 if the violation was willful ^[1]. The statute reads: "A person or entity may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or rules of court of a State, bring in an appropriate court of that State... an action to recover for actual monetary loss from such a violation, or to receive $500 in damages for each such violation, whichever is greater" ^[1].

TCPA class actions are common in Illinois federal courts, especially the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. Courts there have certified text-message classes reaching into the millions of members when plaintiffs show a common campaign sent without valid consent.

Consumers cannot sue directly under the ATDA. That statute reserves enforcement for the AG. But a TCPA private suit running next to an ATDA AG action is a real scenario, and it has pushed several Illinois-targeted defendants toward settlement.

How does call recording law in Illinois relate to robocall compliance?

Illinois is an all-party consent state for call recording under the Illinois Eavesdropping Act (720 ILCS 5/14-2). You have to inform and get consent from every party on the call before recording, including outbound sales calls you place ^[8]. A verbal disclosure at the start, like "This call may be recorded for quality assurance," generally works if the party keeps talking. But silently recording an outbound call to an Illinois resident is a criminal offense under state law, not merely a civil one.

For robocall compliance, the recording overlap matters two ways. First, if you use a prerecorded message the consumer can respond to, that response may be recorded, and the message itself has to disclose the recording. Second, compliance teams often record calls to document consent and opt-out requests. Those recordings are strong evidence in ATDA enforcement and TCPA litigation, but only if you captured them lawfully.

Calling into multiple states scrambles the all-party question. For comparison, see our breakdowns on telephone call recording laws across states, and specifically pa call recording laws and maryland call recording laws, both all-party consent states outbound teams call into often.

Missing the recording disclosure on an Illinois call does not directly create ATDA liability. It does create separate criminal and civil exposure that a class plaintiff's attorney will bolt onto any TCPA complaint.

What records should you keep to defend against an Illinois AG investigation?

If the Illinois AG subpoenas your dialing records, you need consent documentation, call logs, opt-out logs, DNC scrub records, and training records for the staff who ran the dialing equipment. Gaps in any of these look terrible in an enforcement proceeding.

Here is a minimum retention framework for Illinois-targeted outbound operations.

Consent records: keep at least 5 years from the last contact with that number. The federal TCPA statute of limitations is 4 years under 28 U.S.C. § 1658. Illinois contract claims can run longer.

DNC scrub records: log the date of each scrub, the registry version used, and who ran it. Keep at least 5 years.

Opt-out logs: keep indefinitely. A do-not-call request to your company never expires. A person who asked you to stop in 2019 and gets a text in 2025 is entitled to the same protection.

Call recordings: Illinois employers often keep recordings 2 to 3 years, but any recording that documents consent or an opt-out should sit with the consent and opt-out records for 5 years.

Third-party vendor contracts: keep every agreement with list vendors, lead-gen companies, and dialer platforms. They matter for showing good-faith compliance and for any indemnification claim.

Comparing your state exposure? It helps to check how neighboring states like indiana call recording laws handle the records question differently.

Frequently asked questions

Can the Illinois AG sue a company located outside Illinois for robocalling Illinois residents?

Yes. The ATDA applies to any person or entity that makes autodialed calls or texts to Illinois telephone numbers, regardless of where the caller sits. Illinois courts have personal jurisdiction over out-of-state callers who aim communications at Illinois residents. Multi-state robocall operations are a primary target of AG enforcement precisely because they assume state borders offer protection.

Is a text message considered a robocall under Illinois law?

Yes, under both the ATDA and the federal TCPA. The ATDA covers any communication made using an automatic telephone dialing system, and the FCC has consistently held that texts sent through an autodialer face the same rules as autodialed voice calls. The Illinois AG has pursued text-message campaigns under the ATDA on exactly this basis.

What counts as prior express consent under Illinois law for marketing texts?

For marketing texts, the standard is the federal TCPA's prior express written consent under 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200. That means a written or electronic agreement that clearly authorizes autodialed texts, names the specific sender, includes the consumer's phone number, and states that consent is not a condition of purchase. Oral consent, implied consent, or bundled lead-gen consent no longer qualifies after the FCC's January 2025 rule change.

How many robocall complaints does the Illinois AG receive per year?

The AG's office does not publish a precise annual robocall complaint count separate from its general consumer complaint stats. The FTC's National DNC Registry logged over 5 million complaints nationally in fiscal year 2022, with Illinois consistently among the top ten states by volume. The AG combines FTC, FCC, and its own portal data for enforcement prioritization.

Does the ATDA apply to B2B calls to Illinois businesses?

The ATDA broadly covers calls to Illinois telephone numbers and does not carve out business-to-business calls the way some state telemarketing statutes do. Federal TCPA rules protect residential and wireless numbers most strictly, but B2B calls to cell phones still trigger TCPA wireless protections. B2B calls to business landlines are lower risk under both laws, though not fully exempt if an autodialer is used.

What is the statute of limitations for an Illinois ATDA claim?

The ATDA does not set its own limitations period. Illinois courts apply the five-year general civil statute of limitations under 735 ILCS 5/13-205 to statutory consumer claims. Federal TCPA claims carry a four-year statute under 28 U.S.C. § 1658. A plaintiff can bring TCPA claims for four years back, and ATDA-based AG actions potentially for five.

Can an Illinois resident sue directly under the ATDA?

No. The ATDA has no private right of action. Enforcement belongs to the Illinois Attorney General. Illinois residents who get illegal robocalls or texts sue under the federal TCPA's private right of action (47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3)), which gives them $500 to $1,500 per violation in state or federal court. AG complaints can supplement private TCPA litigation but do not replace it.

Does Illinois follow the FCC's 2025 one-to-one consent rule for lead generation?

Illinois state law does not independently codify the FCC's one-to-one consent requirement, but the federal TCPA sets the minimum standard for any Illinois-targeted campaign, so you must comply with the FCC's January 27, 2025 rule. It requires consent to name a specific seller and prohibits consent forms that authorize contact from multiple unrelated companies at once.

What are the calling hour restrictions for robocalls in Illinois?

Both the ATDA and the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule prohibit autodialed or telemarketing calls before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. in the called party's local time zone. Illinois imposes no stricter hours. The clock runs on the recipient's time zone, not yours, so a Chicago team calling California at 6 p.m. CT (4 p.m. PT) is fine, and calling at 8 p.m. CT (6 p.m. PT) is also within the window.

How does Illinois handle prerecorded message calls (ringless voicemail and similar)?

Prerecorded voice messages to wireless numbers require prior express written consent under the TCPA whether or not the phone rings. The FCC has indicated that ringless voicemail delivered straight to a voicemail server still counts as a call to a telephone number and falls under 47 U.S.C. § 227. Illinois's ATDA covers prerecorded messages sent through an autodialer, so the same consent and identification rules apply.

What is STIR/SHAKEN and does Illinois enforce it?

STIR/SHAKEN is a federal call-authentication framework requiring voice providers to digitally sign calls to verify caller ID accuracy, mandated by the FCC under the TRACED Act. Illinois does not separately enforce STIR/SHAKEN, but the Illinois AG coordinates with the FCC and uses authentication failure data to identify spoofed-number robocall campaigns targeting Illinois residents, which then face both ATDA and federal spoofing charges.

If I buy a lead list from a vendor, am I responsible for ATDA compliance when I call those leads?

Yes. Buying a list does not transfer liability. You are responsible for making sure consent exists for each number you auto-dial. If a vendor says the list is consented, get it in writing, verify the consent language meets FCC standards, and keep the documentation. Vendor indemnification clauses help with cost recovery, but they do not stop the AG from naming you in an enforcement action.

How should I handle opt-out requests from Illinois numbers to avoid ATDA violations?

Process opt-outs immediately and apply them across every channel. Log the date, time, and method of the request. For SMS, honor STOP replies promptly under CTIA guidelines, which most senders treat as same-day. For voice, agents note do-not-call requests in real time. A number that opts out of texts must also drop from voice dialing unless you have a separate lawful basis. Delays or channel-specific suppression are the most common enforcement red flags.

Sources

1. Legal Information Institute / Cornell Law School, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (TCPA full statute text): TCPA private right of action: $500 per violation, $1,500 for willful violations; covers autodialed calls and texts to wireless numbers; Truth in Caller ID provisions at § 227(e)
2. Illinois General Assembly, 815 ILCS 305 (Automatic Telephone Dialers Act): ATDA requirements: prior consent, identification at call start, $50,000 per-violation civil penalty, calling-hour restrictions 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., abandoned-call prohibition
3. Illinois Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General (consumer protection and robocall enforcement): Illinois AG enforces robocall law, takes consumer complaints, participates in multi-state robocall task force enforcement actions
4. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200 (TCPA implementing regulations, prior express written consent definition): Prior express written consent must include: telephone number, name of entity, acknowledgment that consent is not a condition of purchase; required for autodialed marketing texts to wireless numbers
5. FTC, National Do Not Call Registry (donotcall.gov): Illinois residents register on this federal list; consumers can file DNC complaints here
6. Illinois General Assembly, 720 ILCS 5/14-2 (Illinois Eavesdropping Act): Illinois all-party consent state for call recording; recording without consent of all parties is a criminal offense under state law
7. FTC, Telemarketing Sales Rule (16 C.F.R. Part 310): TSR calling-hour restrictions 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time; scrub against DNC at least every 31 days; DNC rules apply to telemarketing text messages; 18-month EBR exemption; 3-month inquiry exemption
8. Illinois General Assembly, 815 ILCS 505 (Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act): AG can use Illinois Consumer Fraud Act as secondary hook against deceptive robocall campaigns; carries civil penalties