TCPA Claims in Florida: What Consumers Need to Know in 2026

If you live in Florida, your phone is probably the front line of a daily battle: robocalls about car warranties, texts about loans you never applied for, sales calls that keep coming even after you said stop. Most people hang up, block the number, and move on. What many Florida consumers do not realize is that federal and state law put a price on every one of those illegal calls and texts, and that price is paid to you. This guide explains, in plain English, what the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Florida's own telemarketing law give you, how much violations can be worth, and the simple habits that turn an annoying call log into a real claim. It is general information, not legal advice, and no outcome is promised or guaranteed.

Quick Answer

Under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227, a Florida consumer can sue for $500 per illegal robocall, prerecorded-message call, spam text, or junk fax, and up to $1,500 per violation when the caller acted willfully or knowingly, such as continuing to call after you revoked consent. Calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry carry the same $500 to $1,500 range. Florida's Telephone Solicitation Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.059, adds a separate state claim worth $500 per call or text, also with possible trebling, and it covers some conduct the federal law no longer reaches. You have four years from each call to file. The single most powerful thing you can do is tell the caller to stop in writing, keep proof, and save every call and text that follows.

Two Laws Protect Florida Consumers, Not One

Most articles about robocalls mention only the federal TCPA. Florida consumers actually have a two-layer shield, and understanding both layers matters because they cover different situations.

The first layer is the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, passed by Congress in 1991. It restricts telemarketing calls made with prerecorded or artificial voices, calls and texts made with automatic telephone dialing systems, calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, and unsolicited advertising faxes. Critically, it gives you, not just the government, the right to sue. Every prohibited call or text is a separate violation with its own statutory damages, so you do not have to prove you lost money. Receiving the call is the injury.

The second layer is the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.059, often called the FTSA or Florida's mini-TCPA. It prohibits telephonic sales calls, which Florida courts have read to include text messages, made using an automated system for the selection or dialing of numbers, or that play a recorded message, without your prior express written consent. It pays $500 per call, with discretionary trebling for willful violations, and it is enforced in Florida state courts. Because its definition of covered equipment is broader than the current federal definition, some calling campaigns that escape the federal TCPA still violate Florida law.

Because the two laws can apply to the same call, a single illegal marketing text to a Florida phone can support both a federal and a state claim. That stacking is a large part of why these cases carry real settlement value.

What Counts as an Illegal Call or Text

Not every annoying call is illegal, and not every legal call is welcome. The lines are drawn around technology, consent, and the Do Not Call Registry.

Calls and texts that are generally illegal without your prior express written consent include prerecorded or artificial-voice telemarketing to your cell phone, autodialed marketing calls and texts to your cell phone, prerecorded telemarketing to a residential landline, and sales calls to a number that has been on the National Do Not Call Registry for at least 31 days when you have no existing business relationship with the seller. The FCC confirmed in 2024 that AI-generated and voice-cloned voices count as artificial voices, so the new wave of convincing AI sales callers is squarely covered.

Calls that are generally legal include purely informational calls you consented to, such as appointment reminders and fraud alerts, calls from companies you recently did business with until you opt out, political and charitable calls to landlines, and surveys. Even legal calls become illegal the moment you revoke consent and they keep coming.

Florida adds its own rules on top. Under the FTSA and Florida's telemarketing regulations, sales calls may not be placed before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. in your time zone, callers may not block or spoof their caller ID, and once you text STOP, messages must cease within 15 days under the 2023 amendments.

Consent and the Magic Word: Stop

Almost every TCPA case comes down to one question: did you consent, and if you did, did you take that consent back? Telemarketing robocalls and texts require prior express written consent, a defined term under 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(f)(9): a signed agreement, electronic signatures count, that clearly authorizes the calls, names the seller, lists your number, and discloses that agreeing is not a condition of buying anything. A checkbox buried in a sweepstakes entry that never mentions the company now calling you is not valid consent from that company.

Revocation is where consumers gain the upper hand. Under FCC orders, including the 2024 consent order that took effect in 2025, you can revoke consent at any time, by any reasonable means: reply STOP, say stop to a live agent, send an email, or use the company's opt-out page. Callers must honor revocation within a reasonable time of no more than ten business days, and revoking consent for texts also revokes it for robocalls from the same caller to the same number unless you say otherwise. One clarification text in response to your STOP is allowed; a second sales text is not.

Here is why this matters so much: every call or text after a documented revocation is not just a violation, it is a knowing violation, which is exactly the fact pattern that supports trebled damages of $1,500 per call. The consumer who replies STOP, screenshots the exchange, and keeps a log of the twenty texts that follow has built the strongest individual TCPA case there is.

What Your Claim Could Be Worth

The math is simple and it escalates fast. Federal statutory damages are $500 per call or text, and a court may award up to three times that amount, $1,500, for willful or knowing violations. Florida's FTSA independently allows $500 per call, also with discretionary trebling. There is no cap on the number of violations you can claim within the four-year limitations window.

Consider a realistic South Florida scenario. You fill out an online form about health insurance, start receiving robocalls, and reply STOP. Over the next two months you receive 30 more marketing texts and 10 prerecorded calls. That is 40 federal violations. At the base rate alone the exposure is $20,000; with a willfulness argument on post-revocation contacts, the ceiling is $60,000, before any FTSA count is added. This is why well-documented individual TCPA cases routinely resolve for four and five figures, and why repeat telemarketers take documented revocations seriously. Every case depends on its own facts, and these figures illustrate the statute's math rather than predict any result.

One honest caveat: the TCPA does not include attorney fee-shifting, so individual cases are typically handled on a contingency basis, with any fee arrangement set out in a written retainer agreement. The leverage in these cases comes from the per-violation damage math, not from fee exposure.

How to Build Your Evidence File

TCPA cases are won or lost on the consumer's own records, and the records that matter are all within your control.

1. Screenshot every spam text in full, with the sender's number and the timestamp visible.
2. Screenshot your call log right after each robocall so the number, date, time, and duration are preserved before the log rolls over.
3. Revoke in writing. Reply STOP and screenshot the exchange, or send an email and save a copy.
4. Save every voicemail. A prerecorded voicemail is direct proof of the artificial or prerecorded voice element.
5. If you are on the Do Not Call Registry, keep your confirmation email. Registration is free and permanent at donotcall.gov.
6. After any live call, jot down the date, the company name given, what you said, and how the agent responded, especially if you said stop calling me.
7. Do not delete anything, even after you contact a lawyer. Deleting evidence can damage an otherwise strong claim.

A word of caution about recording calls: Florida is an all-party consent state under Fla. Stat. § 934.03. Recording a live phone conversation without the other party's consent can itself be a crime. Screenshots, saved texts, voicemails left on your phone, and written notes carry no such risk and are usually all the proof a case needs.

Common Situations Florida Consumers Ask About

Debt collectors. The TCPA applies to autodialed and prerecorded collection calls to your cell phone, and revocation works here too: you can tell a collector to stop calling your cell, in writing, and later calls can be violations. Separate federal and Florida debt-collection laws may also apply.

Wrong numbers and recycled numbers. If you get collection or marketing calls meant for the person who had your number before you, tell the caller the number changed hands. Once they know, continued calls lose the reasonable-reliance protection callers sometimes claim.

Lead-generator calls. Many robocalls trace back to a chain: a website collects or fabricates a consent, sells it to an aggregator, who sells it to the company whose product is pitched. A consent form that never named the company now calling you is not consent from that company, and under vicarious-liability principles the brand behind the pitch can often be sued alongside the dialing operation.

Political and charity calls. These occupy a grayer zone. Prerecorded political calls to cell phones still require consent, and charitable telemarketers must honor Do Not Call requests directed at them, but the rules differ from commercial telemarketing and are worth a specific review.

Where and When These Cases Are Filed

TCPA claims can be brought in Florida state courts, including Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach county courts, or in federal court in the Southern, Middle, or Northern Districts of Florida. FTSA claims proceed in state court. The deadline is four years from each call or text under 28 U.S.C. § 1658 for the federal claim and Fla. Stat. § 95.11 for the state claim, but acting promptly matters because call logs, texts, and carrier records are easiest to preserve early.

Two procedural realities are worth knowing. First, some companies point to arbitration clauses in contracts you signed; a consumer who never had any contract with the caller, which is common with lead-generator robocalls, usually has no arbitration obstacle at all. Second, individual cases have become increasingly attractive alongside class actions, because the per-violation math produces meaningful value without the certification fights class cases involve.

What To Do Right Now If the Calls Will Not Stop

Register your number at donotcall.gov if you have not. Reply STOP to unwanted texts and screenshot it. Tell live callers, clearly, do not call me again, and note the date. Start the evidence file described above. File free complaints with the FCC at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, which builds a government record and sometimes triggers enforcement. And if the calls continue after all that, have a consumer protection attorney review your call log. The review costs nothing, and the pattern that feels like a nuisance is often a claim with real value.

Official Sources

• Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227
• FCC TCPA rules, 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200
• Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.059
• National Do Not Call Registry
• FCC consumer guide to stopping unwanted robocalls and texts
• FCC consumer complaint center
• FTC report fraud portal
• FCC consent revocation order
• Fla. Stat. § 934.03, Florida's all-party consent recording law
• 28 U.S.C. § 1658, the four-year federal limitations period

Related Reading

• TCPA Claims in 2026: The Complete Guide
• Robocall Lawsuits in Florida: What You Can Recover
• TCPA Lawyer in Miami: How These Cases Are Handled
• Consumer Protection Legal Services
• Florida Legal Answer Center

The Farber Law Firm: Consumer Protection for Florida Consumers

The Farber Law Firm represents Florida consumers in TCPA and Florida Telephone Solicitation Act matters, from individual robocall and spam-text claims to cases against repeat telemarketers and the companies behind them. If calls or texts you never agreed to keep coming, or continued after you said stop, start a free, confidential case review through the firm's TCPA intake page at thefarberlawfirm.com/tcpa-intake, call 305-774-0134, or visit 2199 Ponce de Leon Blvd #301, Coral Gables, FL 33134. Consultations are free, and most consumer protection matters are handled without upfront attorney fees; any fee arrangement is set out in a written retainer agreement. This article is general information about federal and Florida law, is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case depends on its own facts, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.