Texas Telemarketing Laws — What You Must Actually Do Before Dialing Texas

Texas Telemarketing Laws: The Mini-TCPA in Three Chapters

Texas telemarketing law is three chapters of the Business & Commerce Code, not one statute: chapter 302 makes most sellers register before soliciting — $200 filing fee, $10,000 in security; chapter 304 runs the state no-call list — published quarterly, with a 60-day scrub rule; and chapter 305 hands private plaintiffs a Texas-court claim worth $500 to $1,500 per violation, including for federal TCPA violations.

Since September 1, 2025, SB 140 pulls marketing texts into the registration regime and bolts Texas DTPA remedies onto no-call and TCPA-style violations. Here is what each chapter demands of an outbound team, as of July 2026.

This page is education, not legal advice. A dialer is a tool — the dialer itself can be operated compliantly, but compliance depends on how you use it. Enzo does not scrub against the Texas no-call list or any registry — scrub through a third-party service first, then import. Consult a telemarketing attorney before you dial.

Is There a “Texas TCPA”?

There is no single statute titled the Texas TCPA — what operators call the Texas mini-TCPA is chapters 302, 304, and 305 combined. The sleeper provision is Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 305.053, which lets any person who receives a communication violating 47 U.S.C. § 227 or an FCC regulation under it sue in Texas court — every federal TCPA misstep on a Texas dial is potential state-court litigation.

Chapter 302: Register Before You Dial — $200 Fee, $10,000 Security

Under Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 302.101, a seller must hold a registration certificate for each business location before making a telephone solicitation from a Texas location or to a purchaser located in Texas. That second clause pulls out-of-state teams dialing Texas numbers inside the statute.

Registration carries a $200 filing fee (§ 302.106) plus $10,000 in security — a surety bond, an irrevocable letter of credit, or a certificate of deposit (§ 302.107) — and is effective for one year, renewable (§ 302.104).

The penalties have teeth: knowingly soliciting without registration is a Class A misdemeanor, each violation a separate offense (§§ 302.251–302.253), and civil exposure runs up to $5,000 per violation — up to $25,000 per violation and $50,000 total for violating an injunction (§§ 302.301–302.302).

The exemptions — and who has to prove them

Chapter 302’s exemption list (§§ 302.051–302.061) is long:

• SEC or State Securities Board-registered publicly traded corporations and their subsidiaries
• insurance licensees
• supervised financial institutions
• FCC-regulated persons
• media-subscription sellers
• 501(c)(3) nonprofits and educational institutions
• certain B2B resale and recycling sales
• food sellers
• solicitation of former or current customers by a business operating 2+ years under the same name
• established retail locations open two years
• sellers who close only at a later face-to-face meeting
• and isolated transactions.

There is no blanket real-estate exemption on that list, and under § 302.051 the person claiming an exemption bears the burden of proving it — write down which one covers you and why before the first dial, not after the demand letter.

SB 140: Texts Joined the Regime on September 1, 2025

Texas SB 140 (Acts 2025, 89th Leg., ch. 964) took effect September 1, 2025 and reshaped the landscape in two moves — both applying only to conduct on or after that date:

• Texts are now “telephone solicitation.” SB 140 amended § 302.001(7) so telephone solicitation means “a call or other transmission, including a transmission of a text or graphic message or of an image” — putting marketing texts and MMS inside the chapter 302 registration regime.
• DTPA remedies attach. New §§ 304.2581 and 305.054 make a violation of chapter 304 or 305 a false, misleading, or deceptive act or practice under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, opening the DTPA’s public and private remedies. It also added §§ 302.003(b), 304.005(b), and 305.055 — prior private-action recoveries do not limit future recovery.

Operationally: treat marketing texts sent on or after September 1, 2025 like calls for registration and no-call purposes, and assume DTPA exposure sits behind every chapter 304 or 305 violation — how far DTPA damages reach is a question for counsel, not a fixed dollar figure.

Chapter 304: The Texas No-Call List Mechanics

The Texas no-call list is a combined list: state registrants plus everyone in the Texas portion of the national Do Not Call registry (§ 304.051(b)). It is published January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 (§ 304.051(d)); a telemarketer may not call a number more than 60 days after it appears on the current list (§ 304.052); and entries expire on their third anniversary, renewable (§ 304.053).

The fee caps are statutory: consumer registration is capped at $3 and must be free via the internet (§ 304.054), and the statute directs the PUC to cap each distribution of the list to telemarketers at $75 (§ 304.060) — but the official Texas No Call telemarketer FAQ prices each list at $200 per quarter as of July 2026, so confirm at texasnocall.com before subscribing.

The list is operated for the Public Utility Commission of Texas by a vendor — currently Gryphon.ai, dba Texas No Call at texasnocall.com. Chapter 304 also reaches texting on its own terms: “telephone call” expressly includes text, graphic, and image transmissions to mobile numbers (§ 304.002(10)(C)).

Chapter 304 does not apply to calls under an established business relationship — a voluntary two-way communication not terminated by either party — most B2B calls unless the business has objected, debt collection, or certain state-licensee calls made without an autodialer where the sale closes face-to-face (§ 304.004). Full caller-side mechanics live in the Texas Do Not Call list guide.

Chapter 305 and § 304.257: Who Can Sue You, and For How Much

Two clarifications the summaries usually get wrong. First, the often-quoted “about $200 per violation” figure for Texas no-call penalties is wrong — the statute says up to $1,000 per violation for the PUC and the Attorney General, rising to $3,000 for wilful or knowing violations.

Second, § 304.257 is not an easy $500-per-call remedy: it requires a second or subsequent violation, prior notice to the telemarketer, a verified complaint filed within 30 days, 120 days of agency inaction, and a wilful or knowing violation of § 304.052. The broader consumer path since September 1, 2025 is a DTPA claim under SB 140, and § 305.053 remains the workhorse for TCPA-style claims.

Calling Hours in Texas: Chapter 301 Sets a Stricter Window

Chapters 302, 304, and 305 contain no general curfew for live voice calls — the only clock in the three chapters is the fax window of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. in § 305.003.

But that does not hand the clock to the federal rule: Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 301.051 (chapter 301) sets Texas’s own curfew — a telephone solicitor may make a solicitation call only after 9 a.m. and before 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and only between noon and 9 p.m. on Sunday, unless the called person expressly requested the call, the call concerns an existing debt or contract, or there is a prior or existing business relationship.

That window is stricter than the federal 8 a.m.–9 p.m. floor, so § 301.051 is the operative curfew for solicitation calls into Texas — see calling hours by state for the full state-by-state picture.

Texas separately restricts automated dial announcing devices under Utilities Code and PUC provisions with their own hour limits — verify those ADAD rules before playing any recorded messages into Texas. The federal 31-day national-registry scrub and consent rules still apply on every Texas dial; that picture lives in TCPA for cold callers.

Before You Dial Texas: The Operator’s Checklist

1. Settle registration first. Hold a current chapter 302 certificate for each location, or document exactly which §§ 302.051–302.061 exemption covers you — the burden of proof is yours.
2. Scrub against the current quarterly Texas list and the national registry. The Texas list carries a 60-day rule for newly listed numbers; the federal safe harbor runs on a 31-day cycle. Scrub through a third-party service before any list touches a dialer — Enzo does not scrub against any registry.
3. Treat marketing texts like calls. For conduct on or after September 1, 2025, SB 140 puts texts and MMS inside the registration regime, and chapter 304 already reached texts to mobile numbers.
4. Schedule inside 9 a.m.–9 p.m. Monday–Saturday, and noon–9 p.m. Sunday, at the prospect’s location. Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 301.051 sets a Texas curfew stricter than the federal 8 a.m.–9 p.m. window (express-request, existing-debt, and prior-business-relationship calls excepted) — and area code is not location. Full windows in calling hours by state.
5. Keep suppression records outside the dialer. Do-not-call requests, exemption documentation, and consent records are what you produce when a § 305.053 demand letter arrives.

For how Texas compares with Florida’s FTSA, Oklahoma’s Telephone Solicitation Act, and the rest of the field, see the state mini-TCPA guide.

Where Enzo Fits — and Where It Doesn’t

Enzo’s role in a Texas program is deliberately narrow: campaign-level internal DNC — mark a contact DNC and they stay excluded from that campaign, even if they appear in another list you upload to it. Marks do not carry across campaigns, so keep your master Texas suppression file outside the dialer and re-apply it to every new campaign.

CSV import, list management, and campaign scheduling handle loading a pre-scrubbed list and keeping dials inside the federal window. Enzo does not register you under chapter 302 and does not scrub against the Texas no-call list or the national registry — that is a third-party service, run before import. No dialer makes your calling lawful; the registration, the scrub calendar, and the records are yours.

Run the checklist, calendar the quarterly publication dates, and Texas becomes a manageable state to dial. See how campaign-level DNC and list management fit a real Texas calling workflow — book a free discovery call.

Not legal advice. This guide is general information for outbound calling teams, not legal advice. Rules change and apply differently by state, industry, and call type — confirm your program with qualified telemarketing compliance counsel.

Statutory text from Tex. Bus. & Com. Code chapters 302, 304, and 305 and the enrolled text of Texas SB 140 (89th Legislature, 2025), as of July 2026 — educational only, not legal advice.