Act 47 of 2026, signed July 20, rewrites Pennsylvania’s Telemarketer Registration Act. Sales calls and texts can’t start before 9 a.m., must stop at 7 p.m., and can’t go out on Sundays. Robocalls to home, business, or cell lines need prior express written consent. The act takes effect 90 days after signing. Companies that move their send windows and fix their consent forms before then will be far better placed when the first complaints arrive.
What did the Pennsylvania legislature change?
It tightened the hours, added a robocall consent rule, and pulled texts and business lines into the act. The bill was Senate Bill 992, and the enacted text became Act 47 of 2026, P.L. 532. Its last section reads: “This act shall take effect in 90 days.”
The new list of prohibited acts opens with the hours rule. The amended section 5(a)(1) bars “Initiating or causing to be initiated a telephone solicitation on a Sunday or after 7 p.m. or before 9 a.m.” The language it replaced banned telemarketing “after 9 p.m. or before 8 a.m.”
The robocall rule is a new paragraph. Section 5(a)(11) prohibits “Initiating or causing to be initiated a robocall to any residential, business or wireless telephone line without the prior express written consent of a called party, unless the call is initiated for emergency purposes or is otherwise exempt under this act.”
Two other new paragraphs round out the list. They bar unfair or deceptive tactics used to get a subscriber’s consent, and the use of “any synthetic or computer-generated messaging to defraud, deceive or mislead” a subscriber. The holiday ban in paragraph (10) was already in the act and now uses the new defined terms.
Does the Pennsylvania law cover text messages?
Yes, by name. The act’s new definition of a telephone solicitation starts with “A telephone call, voicemail, ringless voicemail or text message made to a residential, business or wireless telephone subscriber,” and it covers any of those made to sell consumer goods or services. Every rule built on that term, including the hours limit, the Sunday ban, and the do-not-call rules, reaches marketing texts.
The opt-out rule now covers texts too. A subscriber may stop marketing texts by replying “stop,” “quit,” “end,” “revoke,” “opt out,” “cancel” or “unsubscribe,” according to the amended section 5(a)(2). That’s the same seven words the FCC lists in 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(10), so a platform already honoring the federal list doesn’t need a new keyword table for Pennsylvania.
The same paragraph keeps a defense worth knowing. Under section 5(a)(2), a seller or telemarketer “shall not be liable” for a call after an opt-out if it has written procedures, has trained its personnel in them, keeps a list of people who may not be contacted, and the later call “is the result of error.” That defense only works if the company can produce the procedures and training records, so they belong in the file before a complaint arrives.
How do the new rules compare with the federal rules?
Pennsylvania is now stricter than the federal rules on every timing point. The federal limit, in 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(1), bars solicitations to residential subscribers “before the hour of 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. (local time at the called party’s location).” A company that schedules campaigns only to the federal window will be sending illegal texts to Pennsylvania numbers every weekday evening between 7 and 9 once the act takes effect.
| Rule | Pennsylvania after Act 47 | Federal TCPA rules |
|---|---|---|
| Calling hours | No solicitations before 9 a.m. or after 7 p.m. | No solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., called party’s local time |
| Sundays and holidays | No solicitations on Sundays or legal holidays | No day-of-week limit |
| Robocall consent | Prior express written consent for robocalls to residential, business, or wireless lines | Prior express written consent for autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing to cell phones, and for prerecorded telemarketing to residential lines |
| Business relationship window | 12 months before the call | 18 months for a purchase or transaction |
| Text opt-out words | Seven listed words | The same seven words |
The earlier post on state Sunday and holiday calling limits covers the other states with day-of-week rules. Pennsylvania now belongs on that list.
Which calls need prior express written consent?
Robocalls do. The act now defines a robocall as a telephone solicitation “that uses an automated dialing system to deliver prerecorded or artificial voice calls or messages.” The old definition required a call “made to a large number of people,” and that phrase is gone.
The consent itself must be a written agreement between the called party and the seller. Under the new definition, the agreement “Identifies the telephone number to which the called party authorizes the calls or messages,” discloses that the person agrees to receive solicitations “including a robocall or text message,” and “States that the consent is not a condition of purchasing property or consumer goods or services.” It must be signed, and an electronic signature that meets the federal E-SIGN Act counts. A web form that already meets the federal written-consent standard is close, but the Pennsylvania form has to mention robocalls or texts by name.
The text gives businesses some room. The act’s definition of a robocall requires a prerecorded or artificial voice, so a live-agent sales call isn’t one. And because a robocall is defined as a kind of telephone solicitation, the exclusions in that definition appear to carry over. A message is not a telephone solicitation if it’s made with the subscriber’s written consent, about “an existing debt, contract, payment or performance,” or to a subscriber with whom the seller has a business relationship “within the past 12 months preceding the call.”
The open question is marketing texts sent by software. The act doesn’t say whether an automated text is a message delivered with an artificial voice, and no court has had a chance to read the new language. A business that sends automated marketing texts to Pennsylvania numbers should get written consent in the act’s form anyway. The cost of a consent checkbox is small next to the cost of litigating that question first.
Who does the amended act reach?
Callers inside and outside Pennsylvania. The new definition of a telemarketer covers a business that calls or messages “a residential, business or wireless telephone subscriber in this Commonwealth,” or that is “located within this Commonwealth” when it calls. A California company texting customers with Pennsylvania numbers is a telemarketer under the act.
Business lines matter just as much. The federal rule on prerecorded calls to landlines covers residential lines, and plenty of business-to-business callers rely on that limit. Pennsylvania’s robocall rule names business lines expressly, which makes it the change most likely to catch a B2B prerecorded campaign off guard.
Act 47 changes what callers may do far more than how the act is enforced. Its only changes to the enforcement sections delete subsections (b) and (c) of section 6 and reword section 9(c). Lawyers defending Pennsylvania telemarketing claims will also look at how the state rules sit beside federal law, which the earlier post on TCPA preemption of state telemarketing laws covers. The post on state mini-TCPA laws for texting covers the other states with their own texting rules.
What to pull together if a Pennsylvania complaint arrives
- Put a litigation hold on the send logs, dialer and platform data, and consent records for the Pennsylvania numbers involved, including the time zone setting each campaign used.
- Pull the opt-out records for those numbers, with the date and wording of each reply, so the company can show when each request was honored.
- Gather the written do-not-call procedures, the training records for the people who run campaigns, and the scrub records against the state and national do-not-call lists.
- Collect the consent forms and web pages in the version each customer saw, the vendor and lead-source contracts, and the audio file for any prerecorded or AI-voice message.
- Have a lawyer review the file before the company answers the complaint, contacts the customer, or offers anything to resolve it.
Step three is where the opt-out defense lives. Without written procedures and training records, the error defense in section 5(a)(2) has nothing to stand on.
Questions about Pennsylvania’s 2026 telemarketing amendments
When do the Pennsylvania changes take effect?
Ninety days after the governor signed the act on July 20, 2026. The act’s final section says it “shall take effect in 90 days,” and it doesn’t phase in any part separately. Until then, the older version of the act, with its 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window, still governs. Campaign schedules should change before the effective date arrives, not after.
Does the Pennsylvania Sunday ban apply to texts?
Yes. The Sunday ban applies to any telephone solicitation, and the act’s new definition of that term includes a text message. A marketing text to a Pennsylvania number on a Sunday will violate the act once it takes effect, even if the customer opted in. Transactional texts, such as messages about an existing order or payment, fall outside the definition.
Do companies that already meet the federal written-consent rule need new consent forms?
Probably. The federal rule and the Pennsylvania rule both require a signed written agreement that names the number and says consent isn’t a condition of purchase. Pennsylvania’s definition adds that the disclosure must cover solicitations “including a robocall or text message.” A form that only mentions calls, or only mentions autodialed calls, should be updated to name both.
Defending Pennsylvania telemarketing claims
If your company is accused of texting or robocalling Pennsylvania customers outside the new hours or without written consent, the send times, the time zone settings, and the consent form each customer signed usually decide the case. Rosenberger + Kawabata represents businesses defending TCPA lawsuits and class actions through its business litigation practice, including claims involving marketing texts and prerecorded calls to Pennsylvania numbers. Contact Rosenberger + Kawabata online for a confidential consultation, or call (310) 894-6921.
Sources
The state law is Pennsylvania’s Telemarketer Registration Act, as amended by Act 47 of 2026 (Senate Bill 992, Printer’s Number 1649). The bill’s history is on the General Assembly’s Senate Bill 992 page. The federal statute is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227, and the federal rule is 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200.
This post is general information about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and related laws as of July 31, 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Courts and the FCC change the rules in this area often, and the outcome of any claim depends on its facts. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.