TSR Amendments for B2B Telemarketing and Tech Support Calls

Calls from a telemarketer to a business used to sit mostly outside the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule. That changed on May 16, 2024, when amendments took effect that apply the rule’s bans on misrepresentations and false statements to business-to-business calls. A second amendment, effective January 9, 2025, pulled inbound tech support calls under the rule. The TSR is enforced mainly by the government, not private plaintiffs, but the records it requires often decide a TCPA case too.

What changed for business-to-business telemarketing?

The B2B exemption now has a carve-out for deception. The FTC’s April 2024 final rule says the amendments “prohibit material misrepresentations and false or misleading statements in business to business” telemarketing calls.

The change sits in the exemption itself. 16 C.F.R. § 310.6(b)(7) still exempts “Telephone calls between a telemarketer and any business to induce the purchase of goods or services or a charitable contribution by the business,” but the exemption no longer covers the misrepresentation and false-statement provisions in § 310.3(a)(2) and (a)(4). One of those provisions, in § 310.3(a)(4), bars “Making a false or misleading statement to induce any person to pay for goods or services or to induce a charitable contribution.”

The rest of the TSR still doesn’t apply to most B2B calls. A company selling software subscriptions to other businesses isn’t suddenly subject to the TSR’s calling-time limits or its Do Not Call provisions. What it can’t do is misstate the price or the terms of the offer.

The change reaches more sellers than the label suggests. Software, marketing services, merchant processing, and equipment leasing companies all sell to businesses by phone, and their scripts can include savings claims and contract terms that a buyer later disputes. A business customer that says it was misled about a contract’s length or its cancellation terms now has a federal rule to cite when it complains to the FTC or a state attorney general. The practical step is a script review aimed at the price and contract statements, with the approved version kept on file.

Which tech support calls does the TSR now cover?

Inbound calls that answer an advertisement for tech support. The FTC’s December 2024 final rule extends the TSR “to inbound telemarketing calls in response to an advertisement through any medium or direct mail solicitation in which technical support products or services are offered for sale.”

That matters because inbound calls prompted by ads are usually exempt. Under § 310.6(b)(5), the exemption for calls a customer places in response to an advertisement doesn’t apply to ads “relating to investment opportunities, debt relief services, technical support services,” among other listed categories.

The definition is broad. Under 16 C.F.R. § 310.2, a technical support service is “any plan, program, software, or service that is marketed to repair, maintain, or improve the performance or security of any device on which code can be downloaded, installed, run, or otherwise used.” The same section leaves out a service “in which the person providing the repair, maintenance, or improvement obtains physical possession of the device being repaired.” A repair shop that takes the laptop is outside it. A remote-access subscription sold over the phone after a pop-up ad is inside it.

The ad’s medium doesn’t matter. A search ad that lists a phone number can bring the resulting calls under the rule, and so can a mailer. A company that buys tech support leads through an affiliate network should know which ads carry its number, since the inbound calls those ads produce are now covered telemarketing.

What records do the 2024 amendments require?

A record of each telemarketing call, with specific fields. The recordkeeping section at 16 C.F.R. § 310.5(a) requires a seller or telemarketer to keep its records “for a period of 5 years from the date the record is produced unless specified otherwise.” The call record must show, among other things, “Whether the telemarketing call is to an individual consumer or a business consumer,” according to the same section. It must also list the calling and called numbers and the date and time of the call along with its duration.

The April 2024 rule set a later compliance date for the call-record provision: “compliance with 16 CFR 310.5(a)(2) is not required until October 15, 2024.” The post on the Telemarketing Sales Rule and TCPA recordkeeping covers those records in more detail.

The consumer-or-business field deserves attention from B2B sellers. A TCPA plaintiff who says a number was a personal cell phone will look for anything in the seller’s records that labeled it. A field marked “business” at the time of the call is useful evidence, and a field left blank is a missed opportunity. Sellers that buy B2B lead lists should ask the list provider how it decided each number was a business line, and keep that answer with the list.

Can a business be sued privately under the TSR?

Rarely. The Telemarketing Act’s private action at 15 U.S.C. § 6104(a) covers a “pattern or practice of telemarketing” that violates the rule, and only “if the amount in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $50,000 in actual damages for each person adversely affected by such telemarketing.” State attorneys general have their own authority to sue under 15 U.S.C. § 6103.

The TCPA is where private suits come from, and its Do Not Call rule protects residential subscribers. The FCC’s rule at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(2) bars telephone solicitations to a “residential telephone subscriber who has registered his or her telephone number on the national do-not-call registry.” A B2B seller calling a business line has a strong argument that the Registry rule doesn’t apply. A B2B seller calling a sole proprietor’s cell phone has a harder one, since that number may double as a personal line.

Those overlapping rules are why TCPA litigation defense for a B2B seller often starts with the TSR records. They show what the seller knew about the number when it called.

Records a B2B or tech support seller should gather when a claim arrives

1. Put a litigation hold on call logs, dialer and platform data, and any consent records for the numbers named in the claim.
2. Pull the opt-out and internal do-not-call logs with dates.
3. Pull the National Do Not Call Registry scrub records and version dates, along with any records marking a number as a business line.
4. Collect vendor and lead-source contracts, sales scripts, the tech support ads that prompted inbound calls, and any prerecorded or AI-voice files.
5. Talk to a lawyer before responding to a demand letter or a regulator’s inquiry, and before offering anything to settle.

Questions about the 2024 TSR amendments

Does the TSR now apply to all calls to businesses?

No. The B2B exemption in § 310.6(b)(7) still exists. What changed is that the exemption no longer shields misrepresentations and false or misleading statements. A seller calling businesses doesn’t take on the TSR’s full set of rules, but its sales pitch has to be accurate about the material terms of the offer.

Are outbound tech support calls covered too?

Outbound telemarketing was already generally covered by the TSR unless an exemption applied. The December 2024 amendment closed the gap for inbound calls answering tech support ads, which had fallen under the advertising exemptions. A company that both places and receives tech support sales calls should treat both as covered.

Does a TSR violation give a consumer a TCPA claim?

Not by itself. They’re different laws with different enforcement schemes. A TSR violation is mainly a matter for the FTC and state attorneys general, while the TCPA has its own private claims. The same conduct can raise both, though, such as a call to a number on the Registry. The records the TSR requires are often the best evidence in a TCPA defense.

Does the TSR apply to text messages?

The TSR is built around telephone calls. Under § 310.2, telemarketing is a campaign conducted “by use of one or more telephones and which involves more than one interstate telephone call.” Whether a particular text campaign falls under the TSR is a question worth checking with counsel. Text campaigns still face the TCPA’s own consent and Do Not Call rules.

Defending B2B and tech support telemarketing claims

If your company sells to businesses by phone or answers tech support calls from ads, and it has received a TCPA demand or a regulator’s inquiry, the call records and scripts usually decide how strong the claim is. Rosenberger + Kawabata represents businesses defending TCPA lawsuits and class actions through its business litigation practice, including claims involving business-to-business sales calls. Contact Rosenberger + Kawabata online for a confidential consultation, or call (310) 894-6921.

Sources

The FTC’s rules are at 16 C.F.R. § 310.2, 16 C.F.R. § 310.3, 16 C.F.R. § 310.5, and 16 C.F.R. § 310.6. The amendments were published at 89 FR 26760 (Apr. 16, 2024) and 89 FR 99069 (Dec. 10, 2024).

The statutes are the Telemarketing Act at 15 U.S.C. § 6103 and 15 U.S.C. § 6104, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act at 47 U.S.C. § 227. 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 29, 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.