Link Leads Blog · October 1, 2026
Maryland passed its telemarketing law in 2023, turned on a private right of action in 2024, and still runs its own do-not-call registry on top of the national one. Three separate reasons a Maryland slice of an aged list needs its own pass before anyone dials it.
Our posts on Florida's FTSA and Oklahoma's OTSA cover two states that wrote their own telemarketing statutes after the Supreme Court narrowed the federal autodialer definition in 2021. Maryland is a third, and it didn't just copy the other two. The state's Stop the Spam Calls Act, signed in May 2023 and in effect since January 1, 2024, layered a new consent requirement on top of an existing state TCPA — then came back in April 2024 with an emergency amendment that added a private right of action the original bill didn't have. If a 50-state pull puts any meaningful count of records in Maryland, that's three separate things to check before you work them: the consent standard, the calling window, and which do-not-call list (or lists) the numbers need to clear.
The Act requires prior express written consent before a telephone solicitation call, text message, or prerecorded voicemail goes to a Maryland number using what the statute calls an "automated system" for selecting or dialing numbers, or a recorded or artificial voice. Maryland's law doesn't define "automated system" with the same precision the federal ATDS definition now has after the 2021 ruling — which cuts against a caller, not for one. A dialing or bulk-texting platform that a court might find outside the narrowed federal autodialer definition isn't automatically outside Maryland's broader, less-defined standard. The statute covers text messages and prerecorded voicemail drops the same way it covers live automated calls, so a ringless voicemail campaign into Maryland numbers needs the same consent check as a dialer campaign would.
The federal TCPA's calling window is 8am to 9pm in the called party's time zone — the baseline covered in our calling-hours post. Maryland cuts an hour off the back end: telephone solicitations to Maryland numbers are restricted outside 8am to 8pm. On a multi-state campaign running off one national calling-hours rule, that extra hour between 8pm and 9pm is exactly the kind of gap that gets missed — a schedule built around the federal window will keep dialing Maryland numbers for 60 minutes after the state's own cutoff.
This is the piece that's easy to miss on an aged list: Maryland runs its own state Do Not Call Registry (donotcall.maryland.gov) in addition to the FTC's National Do Not Call Registry, and a number can sit on one without being on the other. Scrubbing a Maryland slice against the national registry only and calling it clean leaves the state list unchecked — and the state list, like the national one, exists independently of whatever autodialer or consent question applies to the call. Any scrub pass on a Maryland batch needs to run both lists, not just the one most dialers are already wired to check. See our DNC scrub walkthrough for where a second registry check fits in a normal scrub-then-dial sequence. We point buyers at Landline Remover (an affiliate link — we may earn a commission if you sign up through it) to combine a landline and national DNC check in one upload; a Maryland-specific registry check still has to run separately before a Maryland segment goes out.
The original 2023 bill made violations enforceable as an unfair or deceptive trade practice under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act — state-enforced, with civil penalties that can run up to $10,000 per violation, $25,000 for a repeat violation. A consumer didn't get a standalone private right of action under the new Act until an emergency amendment signed in April 2024 added one, on top of the private right already available under Maryland's older state TCPA (up to $500 per violation, or actual damages if higher, tripled for a willful violation, plus attorney's fees). The practical point: a law that looked like regulator-only enforcement when it passed in 2023 does not look that way now, and reading a year-old summary of the Act will miss the amendment that changed that.
None of this changes the baseline fact that an aged data list, Link Leads' included, carries no prior express written consent tied to you as the caller — see how we source leads for exactly what "aged 30–90 days" does and doesn't mean. What Maryland adds on top of that baseline is three checks worth running before a Maryland segment goes to a dialer or texting queue: confirm the calling or texting method is a manual, one-record-at-a-time process rather than an automated platform, confirm the send window is 8am–8pm Maryland time rather than the wider federal default, and confirm the scrub ran against both the national and Maryland state DNC registries. A manually placed call or manually sent text, checked against both lists and held to the shorter window, is the lower-risk way to work a Maryland segment of a national list.
Whatever state the record is in, the opener's job is the same: identify the caller, not the list, and make opting out effortless from message one. Never greet the recipient by name or use a name placeholder — the agent introduces themselves, the recipient doesn't need to be addressed by one:
"Hi, this is {agent} with {agency} in {state}. I work with folks in your area on [coverage type] — is now a good time for two quick questions? Reply STOP anytime and I'll take you off the list."
On a live call, lead with your name and company, ask permission before pitching, and treat any version of "take me off your list" as an immediate stop and a marked record — not just the literal word "stop."
This is a practical planning guide, not legal advice. Maryland's Stop the Spam Calls Act, its 2024 amendment, and how courts apply either to a specific calling or texting program are subject to further amendment and interpretation this article can't track in real time. Talk to counsel familiar with Maryland telemarketing law before you scale a campaign into the state, especially one using an automated dialing or bulk texting platform.
Link Leads sells aged consumer data leads by state at a flat $0.012 per lead, minimum order 5,000 leads ($60), so you can pull a Maryland-only slice sized to what you can actually work by hand — the Maryland leads page has current record counts and pricing. Build a custom order in the order builder, or start with the free 100-row sample before you commit to a batch.