Tennessee Do Not Call Law: Calls, Texts, and the State Register

Tennessee runs its own Do Not Call Register, and the state law behind it covers sales texts as well as calls. A business that calls or texts Tennessee residents has to register with the Tennessee Public Utility Commission, identify itself at the start of each contact, stay inside an 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window, and avoid numbers on the state’s list. The commission can impose civil penalties for knowing violations. A company with a working do-not-call program has a statutory defense built for it.

What does Tennessee’s Do Not Call law cover?

Sales calls and sales texts to residential subscribers. The definitions in Tenn. Code § 65-4-401 treat a telephone solicitation as a voice communication that “Promotes or encourages, directly or indirectly, the purchase of, rental of, or investment in property, goods, or services.” A separate definition of “text message solicitation” uses nearly the same words for a “text communication over a telephone originating from this state or elsewhere.” The section’s history lists a 2023 amendment, and the text-message language appears in the current version.

The law reaches businesses outside the state. Under the same section, a covered “person” is any entity, “however organized and wherever located that telemarkets to citizens located within this state.” A residential subscriber is someone with residential service from a local exchange company, and the definition of local exchange company includes “cellular or other wireless telecommunications providers.” That language makes it hard to argue that cell phones fall outside the statute.

Which calls and texts are excluded?

Four categories. The definitions exclude a call or text to a subscriber “With that subscriber’s prior express permission,” a nonprofit’s own charitable request, and contacts with an existing customer, which “includes a residential subscriber with whom the person or entity making a telephone solicitation has had a prior relationship within the prior twelve (12) months.”

The fourth exclusion is narrow. It covers a business whose own direct employee contacts a specific person the business reasonably believes is considering a purchase, outside any telecommunications marketing plan, if the business doesn’t sell telemarketing services and makes no more than three such contacts in a calendar week. A local contractor following up on an estimate might fit. A call center working a lead list won’t.

Twelve months is a firm line. A business relying on the existing customer exclusion should be able to show the date of the last transaction or contact for each number, since a lapsed relationship puts the number back in play.

What must every Tennessee sales call or text include?

An early identification and a time limit. Under § 65-4-402, a business making a solicitation must, at the beginning of the call or text, give “the identity of the person initiating the call and the entity or organization the person represents.” Without the subscriber’s permission, it can’t call or text outside 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., “prevailing time.”

Caller ID can’t be hidden. Section 65-4-403 bars a business from knowingly using any method to “block or otherwise circumvent the subscriber’s use of a caller identification service.” These rules sit on top of the FCC’s own calling-hours rule in 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(1), which bars solicitations “before the hour of 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. (local time at the called party’s location).”

How does the Tennessee Do Not Call Register work?

It’s a state list that also pulls in the national one. Section 65-4-404 bars a business from knowingly making a solicitation to a subscriber who has given notice to the commission of an “objection to receiving telephone or text message solicitations.” Under § 65-4-405(c), the commission “shall include the part of such single national database that relates to this state” in its own database. A new enrollment on the state list takes effect, under § 65-4-410, “thirty (30) days following the first day of the succeeding month of enrollment.”

Registration is its own obligation. Under § 65-4-405(d), a business that wants to call or text Tennessee residents must register with the commission each year, and the statute says soliciting a listed subscriber “by any person or entity who is not duly registered and who is not otherwise exempted by law, is a violation of this part.” For this purpose an entity “includes any parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of a person.” A business that scrubs against the national list but never registered in Tennessee may still have a state problem.

Who enforces it, and what’s the exposure?

The commission and, at its request, the attorney general. Under § 65-4-405(f), the commission can issue a cease and desist order and “an order imposing a civil penalty up to a maximum of two thousand dollars ($2,000) for each knowing violation.” The statute says each violation “may include each telephone or text message solicitation made to a residential subscriber that was on the list.” The attorney general may sue for an injunction, and that action can add a claim under the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act.

Federal claims are the bigger risk in private litigation. Part 4’s enforcement sections name the commission and the attorney general, while § 65-4-406 says its remedies are “not exclusive” and add to “all other causes of action” the law provides. The federal TCPA gives a private right of action under 47 U.S.C. § 227(c)(5) for Do Not Call violations, with up to $500 per violation and up to three times that amount if the court finds the violation was willful or knowing. A Tennessee consumer suing in federal court will usually lead with that claim, and the post on state do-not-call registries covers how state lists fit with the federal one.

Does Tennessee give businesses a defense?

Yes, and it mirrors the federal one. Section 65-4-408 makes it “a defense in any action or proceeding brought under this part” that the defendant “has established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures” to prevent violating solicitations. The defense rewards a written policy that’s followed, staff training, and regular scrubs, the same program described in the post on internal do-not-call policies.

The defense is only as good as the records behind it. A policy binder nobody follows won’t carry it, and neither will a scrub that happened once. Companies working with California TCPA defense counsel on a multistate claim should expect the state and federal defenses to rise or fall on the same documents.

Records to collect after a Tennessee Do Not Call complaint

1. Preserve call and text logs, dialer and platform data, and consent records for the Tennessee numbers involved, under a litigation hold.
2. Pull the internal do-not-call and opt-out logs with dates, along with the written policy and training records that support the due care defense.
3. Pull the Tennessee registration records and the scrub records for both the state and national lists, with the list dates used for each campaign.
4. Collect vendor and lead-source contracts and the call scripts and text templates, along with any prerecorded or AI-voice files.
5. Talk to a lawyer before responding to the commission, contacting the consumer, or offering anything to resolve the complaint.

Questions about Tennessee Do Not Call rules

Does Tennessee’s law apply to texts sent from another state?

Yes. The definition of a text message solicitation covers a text “originating from this state or elsewhere,” and a covered person includes an entity “wherever located that telemarkets to citizens located within this state.” A business in Georgia or Texas texting Tennessee residents is inside the statute, and it should check Tennessee registration before launching a campaign aimed at the state.

Is a business that only texts its existing customers covered?

Contacts with an existing customer are excluded if the business had a prior relationship with that subscriber within the prior twelve months. The exclusion depends on the date of the last relationship, so the business should be able to show that date for each number. Texts to people whose last purchase was years ago don’t fit the exclusion and should be scrubbed.

Does registering with the national Do Not Call Registry satisfy Tennessee?

Not by itself. Tennessee folds the national list’s Tennessee numbers into its own register, but § 65-4-405(d) separately requires businesses that solicit Tennessee residents to register with the state commission. A solicitation to a listed subscriber by an unregistered business is a violation of Part 4, even if the business scrubbed the national list.

Can a business text a Tennessee customer at 9:30 p.m. with permission?

The state rule allows contact outside the 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. window only with the subscriber’s permission. The FCC’s calling-hours rule in § 64.1200(c)(1) applies too, and its text doesn’t include a matching exception for a subscriber’s permission. The safer practice is to keep marketing texts inside the window regardless of what the customer said.

Facing a Tennessee Do Not Call claim

If your company has received a complaint from the Tennessee commission or a lawsuit from a Tennessee consumer over sales calls or texts, the registration records and the scrub logs usually decide how much of the claim survives. Rosenberger + Kawabata represents businesses defending TCPA lawsuits and class actions through its business litigation practice, including claims involving texts to numbers on state do-not-call lists. Contact Rosenberger + Kawabata online for a confidential consultation, or call (310) 894-6921.

Sources

The Tennessee statutes are Tenn. Code § 65-4-401, § 65-4-402, § 65-4-403, § 65-4-404, § 65-4-405, § 65-4-406, § 65-4-408, and § 65-4-410. The federal statute is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act at 47 U.S.C. § 227, and the FCC’s rules are at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200.

This post is general information about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and related laws as of April 19, 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.