TCPA Consent and Compliance Requirements for Lead Buyers
Under the TCPA, calling or texting a consumer using an automatic telephone dialing system or a prerecorded message requires prior express written consent naming the specific business that will contact them. As the buyer placing the call, you carry the liability, not the vendor who sold you the record. That makes the consent documentation you receive with each lead the single most important thing you buy.
What prior express written consent requires
The standard is specific. The consumer must have given written agreement, which includes an electronic signature or form submission, that clearly authorises the named business to contact them at the number provided, using an automated system or prerecorded voice if you intend to use one.
Three parts of that sentence matter disproportionately. It must be written and retrievable. It must name the business that will be calling. And it must cover the technology you actually use to dial.
A checkbox reading 'I agree to be contacted by our marketing partners' does not name you. If your firm is not identified, either directly or through a disclosed and retrievable list the consumer could see at the time, the consent is substantially weaker as evidence.
The records to demand on every lead
Independent certification services such as TrustedForm and Jornaya record how consent was captured and store a copy of the page the consumer saw. That third-party record is far stronger evidence than a vendor's own database export, because it was not created by the party with an interest in the outcome.
For each lead you should receive and retain: the consent language shown, the source URL, the timestamp, the consumer's IP address, and the certificate identifier. Store these for at least as long as your jurisdiction's limitations period for TCPA claims.
TODO(usama): confirm which certification provider we use and the exact fields we pass through on each lead.
Buyer-side checks that are yours regardless of the vendor
Scrub against the National Do Not Call Registry and maintain your own internal suppression list. Honour opt-outs immediately and across channels: a consumer who replies STOP to a text should not receive a call.
Respect calling time restrictions in the consumer's local time zone, not yours. Train intake staff to record the moment a consumer withdraws consent, and make that record propagate to every system that can dial.
Reconfirm consent before re-engaging an aged lead. Consent does not have an unlimited shelf life in practice, and a call placed months later against a stale record is exactly the pattern that attracts claims.
How we handle consent
We generate our own traffic, so the consent language is ours to control and show you. Every lead carries an independently generated certificate, and we pass the source URL and timestamp with the record.
TODO(usama): insert our standard consent disclosure text so buyers can review it before signing.
See how this works in practice on our [MVA leads](/lead-generation/mva) and [Medicare leads](/lead-generation/medicare) programmes.
Common questions
- If the vendor indemnifies me, am I protected?
- Not from being sued. An indemnity is a contractual promise about who ultimately pays; it does not prevent a claim being filed against the firm that placed the call, and it is only as good as the vendor's balance sheet.
- Does TCPA apply if we dial manually?
- The written-consent standard is tied to automated dialling and prerecorded messages. Manual dialling changes the analysis, but do-not-call rules and state statutes still apply, and several states impose stricter requirements than federal law.
- How long is consent valid?
- Federal law does not set a fixed expiry, but practical risk rises sharply with age. Many buyers set an internal limit and reconfirm beyond it. Discuss a specific window with your counsel.
- What about state mini-TCPA statutes?
- Several states have enacted their own statutes with requirements stricter than federal law, including on consent wording and calling windows. If you buy leads across state lines, your compliance floor is the strictest state you dial into.
Review our consent documentation
We will send the exact disclosure language and a sample certificate so your counsel can review it before you buy anything.
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