Can your business legally text customers?

Written by Tony of BellCode7 min readTexting & the law

A phone on a workbench at night showing a text conversation, warm light on dark wood

Texting customers works better than almost anything else a local business can do, and it sits under a federal law with a $500 price tag per mistake. Here is the plain-language version of the rules, so you can text with confidence instead of guessing.

None of this is a reason to avoid texting. It is a reason to set it up right once. The rules below are the public federal record, translated out of legalese. One honest note before we start: this is a plain-language guide from a studio that builds texting into small businesses, not legal advice.

The rules 01

Two different kinds of permission

The law treats “your technician is on the way” and “come back for 20% off” as different animals. Updates about a job the customer asked for and replies to someone who texted you first ride on ordinary consent: they gave you their number in the course of doing business with you, and the message is about that business.

Marketing is the strict lane. A promotional text needs prior express written consent: a signed form, or a checked box on a signup that says plainly that marketing texts are coming. The agreement has to exist before the first promotional message, and “they're in my phone” is not writing.

Do this: add one plain line and an unchecked box to your intake and estimate forms: “Text me updates and occasional offers.” That checkbox is the whole foundation.

The rules 02

What a wrong text costs

The federal law here is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and it puts statutory damages at $500 per text, up to $1,500 when a court finds the violation willful. Per text, not per campaign.

It also gives recipients a private right of action, which means anyone you text can sue directly, and attorneys assemble class actions out of exactly the kind of list a small business buys in a hurry. A 200-person blast to a purchased list carries six-figure exposure.

Do this: never text a list you bought, traded for, or scraped. Every number you text should belong to someone who gave it to your business on purpose.

The rules 03

The Supreme Court did not open the door

In 2021 the Supreme Court's Facebook v. Duguid decision narrowed what counts as an autodialer under the law, and ever since, marketers have claimed the texting rules died that day. They did not.

The written-consent requirement for marketing, the Do Not Call rules, and the state laws underneath all survived. Florida and Oklahoma passed their own texting laws after the decision, several other states followed, and some are stricter than the federal rule. The safe posture is the simple one: consent first, everywhere.

Do this: treat consent as required in every state you text into, because for practical purposes it is.

The rules 04

Quiet hours are law, not manners

Federal telemarketing rules set a calling window of 8am to 9pm in the recipient's local time, and texts count. Some states trim it further, Florida stops at 8pm.

A discount text at 9:40pm carries the same price tag as any other violation, and nothing good has ever come from a promotional text after dinner anyway.

Do this: schedule anything promotional inside 9am to 7pm local. You give up nothing and you never brush the line.

The rules 05

STOP means forever

When someone replies STOP, the conversation is over. You may send one confirmation that they are opted out, and then that number goes silent for good. Not paused, and not quietly re-added when you switch software.

Carriers watch this mechanically. Ignoring STOP does not just risk a complaint, it gets your number's traffic filtered, which quietly kills the texts your customers actually want.

Do this: keep one do-not-text list that survives every software change, and check it before anything goes out.

The rules 06

The registration nobody mentions

If your texts come from software rather than a phone in your hand, US carriers require the business behind the number to be registered, the system is called A2P 10DLC. Registration names your business, your number, and what kind of messages you send.

Carriers filter unregistered business traffic silently. Your screen says delivered, the customer's phone shows nothing, and nobody tells you. If a texting tool ever shrugs when you ask about this, that is your answer about the tool.

Do this: ask any texting provider one question before you pay: “is my number on a registered campaign?” They should answer with a yes and a date.

The checklist that keeps you safe

Collect written consent at intake, on the form the customer already fills out. Say who you are in every message. Send inside business hours. Honor STOP the moment it arrives, forever. Never touch a bought list. Keep the records.

Do those six things and texting stops being a legal question and becomes what it should be: the most reliable way a local business has to reach the people who already chose it.

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