Florida TCPA and telemarketing law
Florida has its own telemarketing statute with a private right of action. Its consent standard is stricter than the current federal one.
| Statute | Fla. Stat. § 501.059 | ↗ |
| Consent standard | Prior express written consent | ↗ |
| Stricter than federal | Yes | ↗ |
| Private right of action | Yes | ↗ |
| Statutory damages | $500 / violation · up to $1,500 willful | ↗ |
| Covers text messages | Yes | ↗ |
| Cure period | 15 days (text messages only) | ↗ |
Florida runs its own telemarketing statute alongside the federal TCPA, and the two do not move together. When the Eleventh Circuit vacated the FCC's one-to-one consent rule in January 2025, that vacatur did nothing to Fla. Stat. § 501.059. The state consent standard is set by state law and survived untouched.
The statute is also broader than the federal trigger in two specific ways. It applies to calls made with “an automated system for the selection and dialing of telephone numbers”, which reaches equipment that the federal ATDS definition does not after Facebook v. Duguid. And it expressly covers text messages and voicemail transmissions, not just voice calls.
The 2023 amendment narrowed it in one important respect that most guidance still gets wrong: before suing over text messages, a consumer must first reply STOP and give the sender 15 days to comply. That is a real gate on text claims. It does not apply to voice calls.
Source: Fla. Stat. § 501.059 ↗