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Texas TCPA Expansion (SB 140): A Practical Compliance Guide for AI Outbound Teams
Texas SB 140 expands telemarketing rules for calls and texts. Here is a practical compliance guide for AI voice and SMS follow-up teams.
Guides
Texas SB 140 expands telemarketing rules for calls and texts. Here is a practical compliance guide for AI voice and SMS follow-up teams.
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Texas SB 140 matters for any team using AI voiceAI voiceAn artificially generated, natural-sounding voice produced by a TTS model. Thoughtly supports a library of AI voices and brand-specific cloning. or SMS to follow up with consumer leads in Texas. It does not ban AI agents. It does expand how Texas telemarketing rules can apply to calls, texts, graphic messages, and image-based transmissions that are used to sell consumer goods or services. For revenue and operations teams, the practical lesson is simple: treat Texas outreach as a controlled program with provable consent, no-call checks, suppression, quiet hoursQuiet hoursTime windows when outbound calls or texts should not be sent, based on legal rules, customer preferences, or business policy., and records your legal team can audit.
This is especially relevant for high-consideration consumer funnels such as insurance, mortgage, real estate, education enrollment, elective healthcare, home services, financial services, and legal intake. Those teams often call or text quickly after a form fill, missed call, quote requestQuote requestAn inbound request for pricing or coverage information, common in insurance, mortgage, home services, solar, automotive, and other high-consideration funnels., renewal triggerTriggerThe event or condition that starts an automated workflow, such as a new lead, missed call, CRM status change, calendar booking, or completed call., or aged-lead reactivation. SB 140 raises the cost of loose workflows, not the value of fast follow-up.
SB 140 amended the Texas Business and Commerce Code, especially Chapters 302, 304, and 305. The enrolled bill states that Chapter 302’s definition of “telephone solicitation” includes “a call or other transmission, including a transmission of a text or graphic message or of an image,” when it is initiated by a seller or salesperson to induce a person to purchase, rent, claim, or receive an item. The law took effect on September 1, 2025. The official enrolled bill is available from Texas Legislature Online.
Chapter 302 requires a seller to hold a registration certificate before making a telephone solicitation from a Texas location or to a purchaser located in Texas, unless an exemption applies. The Texas Secretary of State telephone solicitation FAQ says registration currently requires a filing fee and a security deposit, and Chapter 302 also includes quarterly addendum requirements for salespeople. The same FAQ now includes an important notice: in light of the state’s position in Ecommerce Marketers Alliance, Inc. et al. v. Texas et al., a business that sends text messages with the consumer’s prior consent is not required to complete the Chapter 302 Telephone Solicitation Registration Statement solely for those consent-based texts. That notice does not erase federal TCPATCPAUS federal law governing telemarketing calls and SMS. Thoughtly enforces consent capture, time-of-day windows, and DNC scrubbing automatically. duties, no-call duties, opt-outOpt-outA recipient’s request to stop receiving calls or messages. Compliant systems must capture opt-outs and suppress future outreach where required. duties, or the need to document why a program qualifies.
Chapter 304 covers Texas no-call rules. It defines “telephone call” broadly enough to include certain text, graphic, and image transmissions to mobile telephone numbers, and it prohibits telemarketing calls to numbers on the Texas no-call list more than 60 days after the number appears on the current list. The Public Utility Commission of Texas says the lists are updated quarterly and that telemarketers must update internal lists within the 60-day window. Chapter 304 also now says a violation of that chapter is a false, misleading, or deceptive act or practice under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. See Texas Business and Commerce Code Chapter 304 and the PUCT telemarketer FAQ.
Chapter 305 remains important because it incorporates federal TCPA concepts and provides a Texas civil action for communications that violate 47 U.S.C. Section 227, related FCC regulations, or Texas mobile-call provisions. It also now links Chapter 305 violations to the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and says prior recoveries do not limit future recoveries for later violations. The federal layer still matters: FCC rules in 47 CFR § 64.1200 require prior express written consent for many telemarketing calls using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice to covered numbers, and the FCC has confirmed that AI-generated voices are “artificial” under the TCPA. That means AI voice programs should be designed as consent-first programs, not as a loophole around robocall rules.
Use this checklist before launching or scaling AI-led voice and SMS follow-upSMS follow-upSMS follow-up is the use of compliant two-way text messages to continue a lead conversation after a form fill, missed call, voicemail, or prior interaction. to Texas consumers. It is not a substitute for legal review, but it gives RevOps, marketing operations, and compliance teams a concrete operating model.
| Control | What to verify | Operational owner |
|---|---|---|
| Classify the outreach | Document whether each workflow is transactional, service-related, marketing, or mixed. SB 140 risk is highest when the message induces a purchase, rental, claim, or receipt of an item. | Legal + RevOps |
| Capture consent before dialing or texting | Store the consent source, timestamp, disclosure language, seller identity, phone number, and channel. For AI voice, account for FCC treatment of AI-generated voices as artificial under the TCPA. | Marketing ops |
| Review Chapter 302 registration or exemption | For Texas solicitations, decide whether registration is required, an exemption applies, or the Texas SOS consent-text notice applies. Keep the reasoning with campaign records. | Legal |
| Scrub no-call lists | Check the National Do Not Call Registry, the Texas no-call list, and internal suppression records on a schedule that matches legal and campaign cadence requirements. | Compliance ops |
| Honor opt-outs quickly | Route STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, direct verbal do-not-call requests, and CRM opt-outs into a suppression workflow before the next outbound attempt. | RevOps + systems |
| Enforce quiet hours | Block outbound calls and texts outside approved windows using the recipient’s location or your legal team’s conservative policy when location is uncertain. | Operations |
| Use clear identity and purpose | Train agents and message copy to identify the business, avoid misleading claims, and make the reason for follow-up clear at the beginning of the interaction. | Marketing + agent owner |
| Retain audit records | Keep consent evidence, no-call scrubs, suppression events, call recordings where lawful, transcripts, campaign copy, vendor settings, and CRM updates together. | Compliance + data |
Thoughtly should be treated as an execution platform for your compliance policy, not as a substitute for counsel or a compliance certification body. The useful question is not “does the platform make SB 140 go away?” It is “can the platform enforce the workflowWorkflowAn automated, multi-step process — usually triggered by an event (form fill, new lead) and orchestrating one or more voice / SMS / email actions. our legal and operations teams approved?”
First, Thoughtly’s Audiences and CRM syncCRM syncCRM sync is the two-way flow of lead records, conversation notes, outcomes, and next steps between an AI agent platform and a CRM so human teams inherit current pipeline instead of manual updates. model lets teams organize contacts, attributes, consent indicators, and conversation outcomes around the same lead record. For a Texas lead follow-upLead follow-upThe calls, texts, and emails sent after a lead raises their hand, with the goal of reaching them quickly and moving them to a booked or transferred conversation. program, that means consent source, lead sourceLead sourceThe channel, campaign, marketplace, referral partner, or form that generated a lead. Lead source often determines routing, compliance rules, and follow-up cadence., state, service areaService area, preferred next step, and channel reachability can travel with the contact instead of living in a spreadsheet no one checks before launch.
Second, Thoughtly docs describe consent mode and suppression controls that can enforce opt-outs universally or by channel. Universal mode blocks outbound communication across channels when a contact is suppressed anywhere. Granular mode enforces suppression per channel, such as SMS-only suppression where your policy allows other channels. Suppression entries can include the identifier, channel, reason, source, and timestamp where available, and standard SMS opt-out keywords such as STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, and QUIT can create suppression automatically where supported.
Third, Thoughtly dark windows can block outbound voice, SMS, email, WhatsApp, and iMessage during quiet hours, weekends, or other blackout periods. That matters because Texas, federal, and company-policy timing rules are only useful if the campaign system can enforce them at send time. Thoughtly History can also show suppressed status where supported, helping teams separate compliance-blocked outreach from technical failures or unanswered calls.
Finally, Thoughtly’s omnichannelOmnichannelA coordinated customer journey across channels such as voice, SMS, email, web forms, and CRM tasks, where context carries across each interaction. agent model helps keep follow-up consistent when a workflow moves from voice to SMS or email. Channel-aware variables can branch copy and timing by channel, while History and CRMCRMThe system of record for leads, contacts, deals, and activity. Thoughtly reads from and writes to your CRM continuously. updates preserve what happened after the interaction. Branded callingBranded callingDisplaying a verified business name, logo, or call reason on the recipient’s phone so legitimate calls are less likely to be ignored or flagged as spam. and call-screening support can improve trust and answerability where available, but they do not replace consent, no-call screening, or disclosure obligations. Fancy caller ID is not a legal theory. Sadly, lawyers remain undefeated.
Federal consent is essential, but SB 140 adds state-specific registration, no-call, DTPA, and recordkeeping considerations. A program can be thoughtful under federal rules and still sloppy under state operating rules.
The Secretary of State notice is meaningful for consent-based text programs, but teams should not stretch it to cold texts, unclear consent, deceptive content, or voice workflows without legal review.
If a contact opts out by SMS but the CRM, dialer, and agent workflow do not receive that signal, the next call may create the very risk the opt-out was supposed to prevent.
Federal rules, state rules, customer expectations, and contact time zones do not always line up cleanly. Conservative dark windows are usually easier to operate than edge-case exceptions.
A timestamp is useful, but the disclosure language shown at the time of consent is often just as important. Save screenshots or versioned form copy for high-volume campaigns.
Branded calling, verified identity, and call-screening support can improve pickup and reduce confusion. They do not satisfy consent, no-call, registration, or opt-out requirements by themselves.
No. SB 140 is not an AI ban. It expands and clarifies parts of Texas telemarketing law that can apply to calls, text messages, graphic messages, and image transmissions used for solicitation. AI voice and SMS teams can still operate, but they should operate with documented consent, suppression, no-call checks, quiet hours, and legal review.
The Texas Secretary of State FAQ currently says that, in light of the state’s position in Ecommerce Marketers Alliance, Inc. et al. v. Texas et al., any business that sends text messages with prior consumer consent is not required to complete the Chapter 302 Telephone Solicitation Registration Statement for that consent-based texting. That does not remove other duties, and teams should document the consent workflow and confirm their position with counsel.
It can, depending on the message, channel, consent language, and relationship with the consumer. A call or text that encourages a consumer to buy, rent, claim, or receive a consumer good or service should be reviewed as potential solicitation, even if the lead originally filled out a form.
Keep the lead source, consent language, consent timestamp, phone number, state or location basis, no-call scrub evidence, opt-out events, suppression status, campaign copy, agent script versions, call recordings where lawful, transcripts, outcomes, and CRM updates. The goal is to recreate why the outreach was allowed at the time it happened.
Thoughtly provides workflow controls that can help teams enforce consent, suppression, opt-out handling, quiet hours, History review, and CRM updates. Compliance still depends on your legal analysis, consent language, list sources, campaign intent, state-law decisions, and operational discipline.
This article is informational and does not constitute legal advice. Consult qualified legal counsel for compliance decisions specific to your organization.