$700. That’s the first-year fee to register with Wisconsin before a company’s employees or contractors make sales calls or texts to residents, and calling unregistered is a violation by itself. Wisconsin also enforces the Wisconsin portion of the national Do Not Call Registry, limits sales calls to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and requires a signed agreement for prerecorded sales messages. Its penalties are mostly state forfeitures. Private exposure for a Wisconsin calling campaign usually comes from the federal TCPA.
Who has to register as a telephone solicitor in Wisconsin?
Any business that has employees or contractors make sales calls or texts to Wisconsin residents. Wis. Stat. § 100.52(4)(b) bars a telephone solicitor from requiring an employee or contractor to make a solicitation “unless the telephone solicitor is registered with the department.” The details are in the consumer protection department’s rule, ATCP 127.81.
The fee is “A basic annual registration fee of $700 for the first year of registration, and $500 for each subsequent year,” plus $75 per telephone line for registrants using four or more lines. The annual total is capped at $20,000, it’s paid in quarterly installments, and every registration “expires on November 30 of each year.” The application asks for the company’s lines, the number of callers, and its subscription access number for the national registry.
One provision matters for companies that sell through outside agents. Under ATCP 127.81(1)(b), a seller “may register under this section on behalf of a person who employs or contracts with individuals to make telephone solicitations” for the seller’s products. The rule’s own example is an insurance company registering for a self-employed agent’s staff. The catch is that the registration covers only calls about the registrant’s products, so an agent who also sells for another carrier needs that carrier’s registration or its own.
Which calls and texts count as telephone solicitations?
Unsolicited sales calls and texts. The statute defines a telephone solicitation as “the unsolicited initiation of a telephone conversation or text message for the purpose of encouraging the recipient of the telephone call or text message to purchase property, goods or services.” Nonprofits are outside the statute’s definition of a telephone solicitor.
The rule’s definition in ATCP 127.80(10) lists exclusions. A call or text isn’t a solicitation if it answers the recipient’s “affirmative request,” if it’s made to a current client, or if it’s placed to a number in the current local business directory. A single call to a former client who “mistakenly allowed a contractual relationship to lapse” is also excluded. A note to the rule adds that a failure to respond to a negative option, the “we will call unless you say no” approach, isn’t an affirmative request.
The client exclusion is narrower than the federal rule. A “Client” under ATCP 127.80(2) is a person with “a current agreement to receive” goods or services of the type the call promotes. There’s no 18-month window after a purchase like the one in the federal established business relationship rule. A company that leans on its federal relationship with lapsed customers to call Wisconsin numbers on the Registry is taking a risk the federal rule alone wouldn’t create.
How does Wisconsin’s Do Not Call list work?
Wisconsin doesn’t keep a separate list. Its state registry is “the portion of the national do-not-call registry that consists of telephone numbers with Wisconsin area codes,” under § 100.52(1)(fm). Under ATCP 127.82, registered solicitors “must obtain and use a current state do-not-call registry from the national do-not-call registry website at least once every 31 days,” and no one may solicit a covered customer whose number is on it.
Businesses have a separate protection under the statute. A company that receives a mailed request from a business line not to be solicited has to stop calling that business. When asked, the caller has to give a mailing address where that request can be sent.
The rule also makes the registry the starting point, not the end. Under ATCP 127.16(4), a seller may not call a consumer who has said they don’t want solicitation calls from that seller. A repeat call isn’t a violation if the seller has written procedures, trained its staff, kept a list of people who asked not to be called, and the call resulted from “a good faith error.” That defense looks a lot like the federal safe harbor for internal do-not-call lists, and the same paperwork usually proves both.
What are Wisconsin’s calling hours and disclosure rules?
Sales calls must fall between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Under ATCP 127.16(3), a seller may not “Initiate a telephone solicitation to a consumer before 8:00 AM or after 9:00 PM without the prior consent of the consumer,” measured by local time where the consumer lives. That rule sits in subchapter II, whose definition in ATCP 127.02 covers solicitations “by telephone, videoconferencing, or other interactive electronic voice communications.” Texts aren’t named there.
The opening of the call is regulated too. Under ATCP 127.04, before asking any questions or saying anything other than a greeting, the caller must give the name of the principal seller, the caller’s own name, and the fact that the call is a sales call for a particular kind of product. A lead generator that opens with qualifying questions and names the seller only at the transfer has the order backwards under this rule.
Caller ID gets its own provision. Since 2023 Wisconsin Act 243, the statute bars a solicitor from blocking caller ID or knowingly transmitting “a misleading or inaccurate caller identification record,” with a carve-out for showing the seller’s name and a customer service number that takes do-not-call requests. That violation carries a forfeiture of not less than $100 nor more than $10,000 each.
Does Wisconsin restrict prerecorded sales messages?
Yes, and further than many businesses expect. ATCP 127.83(2)(b) bars using “an electronically prerecorded message in a telephone call for the purpose of encouraging a covered or noncovered telephone customer to purchase property, goods, or services, without first obtaining a written agreement that contains the telephone number and signature of the customer to be called.” The agreement must disclose that signing isn’t a condition of purchase.
Two features stand out. The rule reaches noncovered customers, meaning business lines, which the federal residential-line rule for prerecorded calls doesn’t. And it covers any call made to encourage a purchase, not just an unsolicited one, so a prerecorded promotion to existing customers needs a close look. The federal rules for prerecorded calls are covered in the post on prerecorded calls and their exemptions.
| Wisconsin rule | Source | State exposure | Defenses that answer it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calling without registering | § 100.52(4)(b); ATCP 127.81 | Forfeiture up to $100 per violation | Registration by the seller on the caller’s behalf |
| Calls to numbers on the registry | § 100.52(4)(a)2; ATCP 127.82 | Forfeiture up to $100 per violation | Affirmative request, current client, business directory listing |
| Calls outside 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. | ATCP 127.16(3) | State enforcement under the ATCP rules | Prior consent; the consumer’s local time |
| Prerecorded sales messages | § 100.52(4)(a)1; ATCP 127.83(2)(b) | Forfeiture up to $100 per violation | Signed written agreement with the required disclosure |
| Blocked or misleading caller ID | § 100.52(4)(a)4 and 5 | $100 to $10,000 per violation | Seller name and a working do-not-call number |
Can a consumer sue under Wisconsin’s telemarketing rules?
Only for a money loss, and a registry call alone isn’t one. Wis. Stat. § 100.20(5) lets a person “suffering pecuniary loss” from a violation of a department order recover “twice the amount of such pecuniary loss, together with costs, including a reasonable attorney fee.” But ATCP 127.82(2) states that a registry call “does not, by itself, result in a monetary loss” unless the customer suffers an actual loss from another violation of the chapter. Enforcement of § 100.52 runs through the department, which may seek injunctions and forfeitures.
That leaves the federal statute as the main private risk. Under 47 U.S.C. § 227(c)(5), a person who received more than one call in a 12-month period in violation of the federal Do Not Call rules may sue for up to $500 per violation, and a court may increase the award up to $1,500 if the violation was willful or knowing. The federal rules in 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200 also bar telemarketing calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. A Wisconsin compliance program built around the state rules usually satisfies most of the federal ones, and the company’s TCPA and Do Not Call defense then rests on the same records. Caller ID rules at the federal level are covered in the post on caller ID spoofing and STIR/SHAKEN.
Records to gather when a Wisconsin calling claim arrives
- Issue a litigation hold covering the call and text logs, dialer data, and consent records for the Wisconsin numbers involved.
- Pull the company-specific do-not-call list and every opt-out received from those numbers, with the date of each.
- Retrieve the registry downloads and their dates, along with the DATCP registration and renewal records.
- Assemble the contracts with lead vendors and calling vendors, the scripts, and any prerecorded message files and signed agreements for them.
- Get advice from a lawyer before responding to the demand or the department, reaching out to the consumer, or offering anything to settle.
Questions about Wisconsin telemarketing rules
Does Wisconsin’s registration rule apply to out-of-state callers?
Yes. Section 100.52(7) applies the statute “to any interstate telephone solicitation received by a person in this state.” A call center in another state that has employees call or text Wisconsin numbers needs a registration, either its own or one filed by the seller whose products it sells. The safer course is to confirm the registration status of every vendor before a campaign reaches Wisconsin area codes.
Do Wisconsin’s rules cover text messages?
Mostly. The statute’s definition of a telephone solicitation includes text messages, and so does the rule’s definition for the registration and Do Not Call provisions. The calling-hours rule is different, since its definition covers voice communications. Federal quiet-hours rules and other states’ laws may still apply to texts, so most companies use one schedule for both.
How long does Wisconsin require call records to be kept?
Three years. Under ATCP 127.84, a seller must keep the numbers it uses to solicit, each signed written agreement for prerecorded calls and texts, and other required records “for at least 3 years after the seller creates that record.” The department can request copies during an investigation, and the same records are usually the core defense evidence in a federal suit.
If your company faces a Wisconsin telemarketing complaint
If your company is accused of calling Wisconsin numbers on the registry or calling without registering, the registration file and the registry download dates usually decide how much of the claim is real. Rosenberger + Kawabata represents businesses defending TCPA lawsuits and class actions through its business litigation practice, including claims involving calls to numbers on state Do Not Call lists. Contact Rosenberger + Kawabata online for a confidential consultation, or call (310) 894-6921.
Sources
The Wisconsin statutes are Wis. Stat. § 100.52 and § 100.20, with the caller ID amendments in 2023 Wisconsin Act 243. The department’s rules are ATCP 127.02, 127.04, 127.16, 127.80, 127.81, 127.82, 127.83, and 127.84. The federal law is 47 U.S.C. § 227 and 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200.
This post is general information about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and related laws as of June 23, 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.