Last reviewed October 18, 2026 by Jackson McMillan, Florida attorney
Short answer: Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a business generally needs your consent before calling your cell phone with a prerecorded or artificial voice, AI voices included, and needs your signed written consent for a sales pitch. The law sets $500 per violation, up to $1,500 if willful. Finding who is behind the calls is often the hard part.
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What counts as a robocall under the law?
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is the federal law on unwanted calls. Its robocall rule covers calls made with a prerecorded voice, an artificial voice, or an autodialer. A prerecorded message is a recording that plays when the call connects. An artificial voice is one made by a computer. An autodialer is dialing equipment that courts now define narrowly.
The core rule fits in one sentence. Without your prior express consent, a caller generally may not use any of those methods to reach a cell phone, unless the call is for an emergency (47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii)). That rule is not limited to sales calls. It reaches any call, so a recorded debt collection message or a recorded political call to your cell phone needs consent too.
In practice, the strongest federal claims involve a recorded or synthetic voice sent to a cell phone. A voicemail where no live person ever speaks, or a call where a recording starts talking the moment you answer, is the kind of evidence these cases are built on. A live salesperson who comes on after a short pause is a much harder case, for reasons explained below.
Could I have agreed to these calls without knowing it?
Possibly, and it is the first thing a caller will argue. For a robocall that isn't selling anything, ordinary consent can be enough, and giving a company your number for an account or a debt is usually treated as consent to calls about that account or debt. A sales robocall needs more: your signed, written agreement to get automated or recorded marketing calls from that seller.
Federal rules call this prior express written consent. It has to be a written agreement you signed (an electronic signature counts) that names the seller and the phone number to call. It also has to tell you clearly that you are agreeing to marketing calls made with an autodialer or a prerecorded or artificial voice, and that you don't have to agree in order to buy anything (47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(2), (f)(9)). Just handing a business your number is not written consent.
Online quote forms are where most consent fights start. People type a number into a website for an insurance, solar, or loan quote and then hear from companies they never heard of. Whether that form created valid written consent depends on what it said, which seller it named, and whether you are the person who filled it out. In 2023 the FCC adopted a stricter rule limiting consent to one seller at a time, but a federal appeals court struck it down in January 2025, so the older definition still applies. That makes the exact wording of the form important, and I read it closely.
Home landlines follow a similar pattern. A prerecorded or artificial-voice sales call to a residential landline also needs written consent. Some recorded calls that aren't selling anything, such as certain nonprofit and political calls, may reach a landline without consent if the caller stays within three calls in 30 days and honors requests to stop (47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(3)).
Are AI voice calls treated like robocalls?
Yes, according to the FCC. In February 2024 the Federal Communications Commission ruled that AI-generated and cloned voices are "artificial" voices under the TCPA. A call using one needs the same consent as a call that plays a recording, and an AI sales call to your cell phone needs your signed written consent.
There is one wrinkle. In 2025 the Supreme Court decided McLaughlin Chiropractic v. McKesson, which says federal judges decide for themselves what the TCPA means and give the FCC's reading respect, not automatic deference. So the AI ruling carries weight but does not bind a court, and a company sued over an AI voice can argue the point.
AI calls can be hard to spot. Signs include a "person" who answers questions a little off topic, repeats the same phrases, can't handle being interrupted, or sounds identical on calls from different numbers. Save every voicemail. A recording of the voice itself is often the strongest evidence of how the call was made.
What did Facebook v. Duguid change about autodialer claims?
It made autodialer claims much narrower. In 2021 the Supreme Court held that dialing equipment counts as an autodialer only if it can store or produce phone numbers using a random or sequential number generator. Systems that simply dial a stored list of customer numbers usually don't qualify, so many claims over live sales calls and texts now fail.
Before that decision, many lawsuits argued that any computerized dialing system was an autodialer. Now the question is how the equipment came up with the numbers it called (47 U.S.C. § 227(a)(1)). Most modern marketing platforms dial lists rather than randomly generated numbers, and a caller will usually say exactly that.
Duguid did not touch the rules for prerecorded and artificial voices. If a recording or a synthetic voice was used, it doesn't matter how the number was dialed. That's why my first question for anyone who contacts me about robocalls is the same: did a real person ever come on the line, and do you have a voicemail?
Send me the voicemail, a screenshot of your call log, and anything you remember about how the company might have gotten your number. I'll review it at no charge and tell you whether the calls look like a claim and who might be behind them.
What if the robocalls aren't selling anything?
The federal cell phone rule can still apply. The Do Not Call rules only cover sales calls, but the robocall rule covers any call made to a cell phone with a prerecorded or artificial voice or an autodialer. Recorded debt collection calls, automated reminders, and political robocalls to a cell phone can all require consent.
Consent works differently for these calls. A robocall that isn't a sales pitch needs only prior express consent, not written consent. Giving your number to a creditor, for example on a loan application, is usually treated as consent to calls about that debt. You can take consent back, though; see still getting calls after you told them to stop.
Collection robocalls often come with other problems, like calls late at night or calls after you have a lawyer. Florida's collection law covers those, and I explain how on my debt collector harassment page. Political robocalls raise a separate point: campaigns aren't covered by the Do Not Call list, but the consent rule for recorded calls to cell phones still applies to them.
Does Florida law cover robocalls too?
Yes, for sales calls. The Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA) bars unsolicited sales calls that use an automated system for the selection and dialing of numbers, or that play a recorded message when the call connects, unless you gave prior express written consent (Fla. Stat. § 501.059(8)(a)). The FTSA as a whole applies to sales calls, texts, and voicemails.
Because it only covers sales, political, survey, and debt collection calls fall outside the FTSA. "Unsolicited" also has a specific meaning. It excludes calls you asked for, calls about an unpaid debt or an unfinished contract, and calls from a business you have a prior or existing relationship with (§ 501.059(1)(k)). Calls to a Florida area code are presumed to reach someone in Florida.
One part of the Florida statute is unsettled. It says "selection and dialing," and no controlling appeals court decision has settled what equipment that phrase covers. Before a 2023 amendment it said "selection or dialing," which was broader. A recorded message is the clearer route under Florida law, as it is under federal law.
Florida's law has a feature to understand before suing under it: the side that wins recovers its reasonable attorney's fees and costs from the side that loses (§ 501.059(11)(a)). If you win, the court awards your fees against the company. If you lose, the company can recover its fees from you. That is a real risk, and it's one reason I check the facts and any consent records carefully before recommending an FTSA claim.
Can I sue if I don't know who is calling?
Only if the business behind the calls can be identified and can pay a judgment. Many robocalls come from scammers who fake their caller ID or work from overseas, and in practice no lawsuit reaches them. Many others are made for real companies selling insurance, home improvements, solar panels, or auto warranties, and those companies can be held responsible.
A company that hires telemarketers or lead generators can be liable for their illegal calls when they acted on its behalf, under ordinary agency rules: it authorized the calls, let the caller appear to speak for it, or accepted the results knowing how they were produced. That matters because the voice on the phone often belongs to a call center you've never heard of, while the company that sends the quote or the contract afterward is the one with assets.
Clues that point to a real seller include a company name in the voicemail, a callback number that reaches a sales office, a follow-up email, text, or letter, and any quote or contract you received after a call. Write each one down. My guide to documenting spam calls has a call log you can copy.
The account holder isn't always the only person who can sue. The federal robocall rule lets "a person or entity" bring a claim, and courts have often read that to include a regular user of the phone, such as a family member on your plan.
What can a robocall claim be worth?
For each violation, the TCPA sets your actual losses or $500, whichever is greater, and a court may raise that to as much as $1,500 if the caller acted willfully or knowingly (47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3)). The increase is up to the judge, not automatic. Florida's FTSA uses the same $500 figure for sales calls.
What a case is worth in the real world depends on how many calls you can prove, whether the caller can show consent or an exemption, whether a recorded or artificial voice was used, and whether the company behind the calls can actually pay. A court can also order the calls to stop. Some robocall claims are worth bringing and some are not, and I'll give you my honest view of yours.
Fees work differently under the two laws. Nothing in the federal TCPA makes the caller pay your attorney's fees, even when you win. Florida's FTSA does shift fees, but to whichever side prevails, as explained above. You don't pay me unless you win. I take these cases on contingency: no attorney's fees and no case costs owed to me unless you recover money. If a case is lost, a court can sometimes order the losing side to pay the other side's court costs, and some Florida laws, including the security deposit and deceptive practices statutes, also let the winner recover attorney's fees from the loser. I explain that risk before anything is filed, and every term is in a written agreement before you sign.
The deadline to sue over robocalls
For a federal TCPA claim, the deadline is generally four years from each call, under the catch-all federal deadline that applies to laws passed after 1990. Each call has its own clock, so older calls can fall outside the window while newer ones stay inside it. Florida's FTSA doesn't state its own deadline, and courts haven't settled which one applies.
Florida's general four-year limit for claims based on a statute may turn out to govern FTSA claims, but treat that as an open question and don't wait to find out. The practical deadline is usually shorter anyway: voicemail boxes fill up and delete old messages, and call logs on most phones only go back so far.
What to do today
- Save every voicemail that uses a recording or a computer voice. Export or back them up so they don't get deleted when your inbox fills.
- Screenshot your call log showing each number, date, and time, even numbers that look fake.
- Write down what each call said: the company or product named, any callback number, and whether a live person ever came on.
- Think back to how they got your number. An online quote form, a contest entry, a purchase? Keep anything you signed or submitted.
- Don't play along to find out who's calling, and don't press a button to "learn more." Showing interest can complicate a claim later.
- If you want the calls to stop, say so on a call and note the date and time, or reply STOP to texts and screenshot it.
- Send it to me. Request a free case review and attach your voicemails, screenshots, and notes. I'll tell you which calls may break the law and whether the seller can be found.
Sources: Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. §§ 227(a)(1), 227(b); 47 C.F.R. §§ 64.1200(a), 64.1200(f)(9); Fla. Stat. § 501.059; 28 U.S.C. § 1658(a); Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 592 U.S. 395 (2021); McLaughlin Chiropractic Assocs. v. McKesson Corp., 606 U.S. 146 (2025); Ins. Mktg. Coal. Ltd. v. FCC, 127 F.4th 303 (11th Cir. 2025); FCC Declaratory Ruling on AI technologies and robocalls, FCC 24-17 (Feb. 8, 2024). Last reviewed October 18, 2026.