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On July 20, 2026, Governor Josh Shapiro signed Senate Bill 992 into law, rewriting Pennsylvania's 1996 Telemarketer Registration Act for a world that runs on automatic dialer platforms, SMS, and ringless voicemail rather than rotary phones. The law takes effect October 18, 2026. If your team places outbound calls or texts to anyone in Pennsylvania, the clock is already running.
This isn't a routine regulatory update to skim and file away. TCPA defense attorneys are already calling it a "mini-TCPA with real teeth," and it lands on top of a federal compliance environment that was already unforgiving for dialer industries.
SB 992 itself does not create a brand-new, standalone private right of action inside the Telemarketer Registration Act.
However, the law explicitly links violations of the Telemarketer Registration Act to Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL).
Because of that linkage:
A violation of SB 992 (Act 47 of 2026) is also treated as a violation of the UTPCPL.
This gives consumers a private right of action under the UTPCPL.
Multiple law firm analyses (including Troutman Amin on Lexology) confirm this point and note that the plaintiffs’ bar is expected to take notice.
SB 992 amends a law written before smartphones existed. The update closes gaps telemarketers have operated in for three decades by explicitly regulating channels the original 1996 statute never anticipated. It passed both chambers of the Pennsylvania legislature unanimously, with input from the state Attorney General's office, which signals this isn't a fringe measure likely to face early legal challenges or rollback.
For any B2B team running outbound campaigns through an auto dialer, three details matter most: the expanded definition of what counts as regulated solicitation, the new consent standard, and the penalties attached to getting either one wrong.
Scope expands well beyond live calls:
"Telephone solicitation" now explicitly covers text messages, voicemails, and ringless voicemails, not just traditional calls. If your outbound stack includes SMS sequences or voicemail drops alongside live dialing, all of it now falls under the same regulatory umbrella.
Robocalls get redefined around automated systems:
The law updates its definition of a robocall to center on automated dialing systems delivering prerecorded or artificial voice content, language written specifically to capture modern dialer and voice-AI technology rather than just old-style autodialers.
Consent requirements get far more specific:
Solicitations now require prior express written consent that identifies the specific number being contacted, clearly discloses agreement to receive solicitations (including texts and robocalls), explicitly states that consent isn't a condition of purchase, and includes a signature, electronic or otherwise. A vague opt-in checkbox buried in a form footer no longer meets this bar.
Calling windows shrink:
Solicitations are now restricted to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., with no calls or texts permitted on Sundays or legal holidays. A campaign scheduled without state-specific time-zone logic can violate this without anyone noticing until a complaint arrives.
Opt-out keywords are now codified:
Standard text opt-out language, STOP, QUIT, END, and similar terms, must be honored consistently rather than handled ad hoc by whatever texting platform a team happens to use.
Caller ID spoofing is explicitly banned:
liability extends to the company that hired the telemarketer, not just whoever placed the call. Outsourcing dialing to a third party doesn't transfer the compliance risk away from the business whose name is on the campaign.
Penalties are real money:
Violations carry civil penalties up to $1,000 each, rising to $3,000 for calls to consumers 60 or older, and violations also trigger Pennsylvania's consumer protection statute, opening the door to private lawsuits.
Here’s a side-by-side view of how Pennsylvania’s new rules compare with the federal TCPA:
| Requirement | Federal TCPA | Pennsylvania SB 992 (Effective Oct 18, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Covered Channels | Calls and some texts | Calls + Texts + Voicemails + Ringless Voicemail |
| Consent Standard | Prior Express Written Consent (PEWC) | Stricter PEWC (must identify number, disclose types of solicitation, state consent is not a condition of purchase, + signature) |
| Calling Hours | 8 a.m. – 9 p.m. local time |
Pennsylvania is the latest state layering its own rules on top of the federal TCPA, joining a growing list of states running parallel "mini-TCPA" statutes with their own consent standards, calling windows, and penalty structures. For any dialer industries team operating across state lines, this means compliance can no longer be built around a single federal baseline. A calling cadence that's compliant in one state can be a violation the moment a lead's area code shifts to another.
That patchwork is exactly why compliance logic increasingly needs to live inside the dialer and CRM system itself, rather than in a policy document nobody checks before a campaign launches.
A few concrete steps worth running through before the deadline, not after:
Compliance tightening isn't happening in isolation. A recent industry analysis from Growwise Insights reported reply and conversation rates of 40 to 60% for platform-safe AI chatbot outreach, compared to roughly 1 to 3% for traditional cold calling and cold email, a claim worth treating as directional rather than gospel, but one that lines up with a broader pattern.
Separately, Demand Gen Report and Demandbase's Labs data found that monthly ChatGPT-referred visits to B2B websites climbed to 2.6 million in June 2026, up 303% from roughly 645,000 a year earlier. As Demandbase CMO Rachel Truair put it, AI assistants are becoming a real way B2B buyers discover and evaluate companies, and much of that activity happens before a buyer ever reaches a brand's website. Neither data point means dialing is going away, and phone still outperforms other channels for high-value B2B conversations. It means the volume math behind pure cold-dial programs is shifting at the same moment the compliance bar for running them is rising, which makes now a reasonable point to reassess channel mix rather than just patch consent forms.
The practical fix isn't a policy memo, it's building these rules directly into how a dialer crm for b2b actually operates. Consent fields need to capture the specific data SB 992 requires at the point of intake, not reconstructed after the fact. Opt-out keywords need to sync automatically across texting and calling systems rather than living in two disconnected lists. Calling-window enforcement needs to be a system-level rule tied to the lead's actual location, not a manual reminder in a training doc.
Teams running an automatic dialer that already logs call outcomes and timing automatically have a real head start here, since the infrastructure for enforcing time-window and consent rules programmatically is close to what most modern dialer platforms already track for reporting purposes. This is really an extension of the same task-queue and workflow logic that governs when and who a rep contacts next, compliance rules are just another input the system should be enforcing automatically rather than a separate manual check. The gap is usually configuration, not capability.
This is where modern platforms create a real advantage. DemandConnect, DemandTech's cloud-based AI dialer + CRM, is designed to enforce these controls at the system level: configurable calling hours by lead location, automatic DNC and consent logging, real-time compliance status visibility, and smart auto-dialing that only connects agents to live answers. Teams using platforms with this level of built-in control have a clear head start.
SB 992 gives dialer teams a firm, dated deadline rather than a vague warning: October 18, 2026. The specific requirements consent language, calling hours, opt-out handling, caller ID accuracy are all concrete enough to audit now rather than react to later. Pennsylvania won't be the last state to do this, which makes building compliance into dialer and CRM workflows directly, rather than bolting it on state by state, the more durable fix.
Note: This article summarizes publicly reported legal developments for informational purposes and is not legal advice. Consult qualified counsel to confirm how SB 992 and related state and federal telemarketing laws apply to your specific operations.
Quick answers to common questions.
| 9 a.m. – 7 p.m. (No Sundays or legal holidays) |
| Opt-out Handling | Must honor opt-outs | Explicitly requires honoring STOP, QUIT, END, etc. |
| Liability | Primarily on the caller | Extends to the company that hired the telemarketer |
| Penalties | $500 – $1,500 per violation | Up to $1,000 (or $3,000 if recipient is 60+) + private right of action |