Link Leads Blog · August 18, 2026
Florida runs its own telemarketing law on top of the federal TCPA, and it doesn't just repeat the federal rules with a state seal on them. It covers calls the TCPA doesn't reach, sets its own calling window, and gives consumers a private right of action — which is exactly why it generates so much of the country's telemarketing litigation.
The federal TCPA restricts autodialed and prerecorded calls or texts to cell phones. A lot of agents read that and assume a live, hand-dialed call from a real person sidesteps telemarketing law entirely. In most states that's roughly true. In Florida it isn't. The Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA) is a state statute that regulates "telephonic sales calls" more broadly than the federal definition, and it applies whether or not the equipment involved would trigger the TCPA. If a meaningful share of your book is Florida contacts — and for most agents working a national aged list, it is — the FTSA is the rule that actually governs your calling and texting program, not the TCPA.
At a high level, the FTSA requires prior express written consent before making a telephonic sales call — a call or text promoting goods or services — to a Florida resident's phone. The statute was amended in 2023 to narrow its scope and bring it closer in line with the federal definition of an autodialer, which reduced (but didn't eliminate) the gap between Florida and the rest of the country. It also sets a calling-time window, restricts the volume of calls on the same subject matter in a short period, and requires that a called party's request to stop be honored. Violations carry statutory damages per call or text, and the law includes a private right of action — meaning an individual consumer, not just a regulator, can bring a claim. That last point is the reason Florida shows up disproportionately in telemarketing lawsuit filings nationally.
An aged data list — the kind Link Leads sells — is demographic and contact information licensed in bulk and aged 30–90 days before resale. It is not a list of consumers who gave prior express written consent to be contacted by you specifically, and no vendor can honestly sell you one that is: consent under the FTSA and TCPA has to be tied to the specific seller or a clearly disclosed party, which an aged data purchase doesn't carry. That doesn't mean a Florida record on the list is unreachable — it means the safer path is a manually dialed, one-at-a-time call or a manually sent text rather than an automated dialer or blast platform, since the FTSA's stricter provisions are aimed squarely at automated and prerecorded outreach. It also means treating every Florida record as if the request-to- stop rule applies from message one, because it does.
Outside-window contact is one of the more mechanically simple violations to prove — a timestamp either falls inside the permitted hours or it doesn't — which is exactly why it's a common basis for FTSA claims. Build the time window into your dialer or texting tool's settings rather than relying on a rep to check a clock, and calculate it off the lead's local time zone, not yours. A Florida list spans only the Eastern time zone, which removes one common source of error, but the discipline still has to be enforced systematically rather than left to individual judgment call by call.
You can't text a landline, and a portion of any purchased data file — Link Leads' aged SMS lists run 96% mobile-validated, meaning some records are not — will still be landlines or disconnected numbers. Sending to one wastes the message and, on some texting platforms, can flag the number as invalid in a way that drags down deliverability for the rest of the batch. Before you release a Florida slice to a texting campaign, run it through a landline scrub. We point our own buyers at Landline Remover for this — upload the CSV and it flags landlines and disconnected numbers before you spend a text credit on one (disclosure: that's an affiliate link and we may earn a commission if you sign up through it).
Keep the opener short, identify the caller by name and company immediately, and give a clear, easy opt-out on the first contact — all three help regardless of which state's rule technically applies, and all three are what a Florida claim actually turns on. Never address the recipient by name or use a name placeholder; the agent introduces themselves, not the list:
"Hi, this is {agent} with {agency} in {state}. I work with homeowners in your area on [coverage type] — is now a bad time, or can I ask two quick questions? Reply STOP anytime to opt out."
On a live call, state your name and company in the first sentence, ask permission to continue before pitching anything, and end the call immediately and mark the record if you hear "take me off your list" in any form — don't wait for the word "stop" specifically.
Florida's amended law added a cure provision — a defendant can, under specific conditions, avoid liability by showing a violation was unintentional and fixing it within a set window after notice. That provision is only useful if you can actually document what happened: which number you called, when, through what channel, and what your calling-hours logic was at the time. A simple log — one row per contact attempt with timestamp, channel, and outcome — is the same tool the cost-per-contact spreadsheet already asks you to keep for ROI tracking. It does double duty as your compliance record with no extra work.
This is a practical planning guide, not legal advice. The FTSA, the federal TCPA, and Florida's broader consumer protection rules are amended periodically, and how they apply to a specific calling or texting program depends on facts this article can't know. Talk to counsel familiar with Florida telemarketing law before you scale a campaign into Florida, especially one using automated dialing or texting platforms.
Link Leads sells aged consumer data leads by state at a flat $0.015 per lead, so you can pull a Florida-only slice sized to what your calling capacity can actually work — the Florida leads page has current record counts and pricing, and code PACT takes 20% off your first order in the order builder. If you haven't scrubbed a list before texting it, the DNC scrub walkthrough covers the full process end to end. Or start with the free 100-row sample.