Texas Telemarketing Texts: What Changed for Recipients in 2025

By MercPrivacy · Published 2026-09-03 · Updated 2026-09-07

Since September 1, 2025, a marketing text to a Texas number is a telephone solicitation under state law. SB 140 extended registration, no-call and enforcement rules to texts and opened DTPA remedies. Here is what it means for you.

Since September 1, 2025, a marketing text message to a Texas number is treated as a telephone solicitation under the Texas Business and Commerce Code. Senate Bill 140, signed in June 2025, extended the state's registration, no-call and enforcement framework to text messages and opened Deceptive Trade Practices Act remedies for violations of chapters 304 and 305. The private action in section 305.053 provides the greater of $500 per violation or actual damages, which a court may raise to the greater of $1,500 per violation or three times actual damages when the violation is knowing or intentional. Verify the current statutory text before relying on it.

This article puts chapters 302, 304 and 305 into plain English, explains what SB 140 changed for a person receiving texts rather than for the businesses sending them, walks through what a Texas text claim needs, and lists what to keep from the first message. It closes with how Texas compares to the other states that have moved on texts, because the state rules now differ enough that where your number is matters. The per-violation amounts above are the statutory figures, not predictions.

“The federal rules always cared how a message was sent. The Texas change means a marketing text to a Texas phone now has to answer to the state's own list, its own registration rule and its own courtroom.”

Chapters 302, 304 and 305 in Plain English

Texas regulates telephone solicitation in three linked chapters of the Business and Commerce Code, and each does one job.

Chapter 302 is registration. A business that makes telephone solicitations to Texas residents must hold a registration certificate from the Secretary of State and post security unless it fits one of the chapter's exemptions. Registration is a compliance duty enforced by the state, and an unregistered sender is a fact worth recording in any file.

Chapter 304 is the Texas no-call list. Texas maintains its own list, administered under the Public Utility Commission's framework, separate from the national registry. A telemarketer must obtain the list and may not make a telemarketing call to a number that has been on it for the period the chapter specifies. The list has its own exemptions, including for businesses with an existing relationship with the consumer, so read them before assuming a caller is bound.

Chapter 305 is enforcement. It gives the state its remedies and, in section 305.053, gives a person who receives a communication that violates the federal TCPA or the no-call subchapter of chapter 304 a private action in a Texas court against the person who originated it. The statutory per-violation amounts in the opening paragraph come from that section; statutory damages explained covers how a per-violation figure is applied to a count of messages.

What SB 140 Changed on September 1, 2025

Before SB 140, the Texas framework spoke of telephone calls, and senders argued that a text was not a call under state law even though federal law had long treated it as one. SB 140 removed the argument. The definitions now reach text messages, so a marketing text to a Texas number is a telephone solicitation for purposes of the registration requirement, the no-call list and the enforcement chapter.

The second change is the DTPA link. A violation of chapter 304 or 305 now supports a claim under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which carries its own remedies, its own pre-suit notice requirement and its own attorney's-fee provisions. That gives a recipient a second statutory route through the same facts, and it gives the Attorney General's consumer-protection tools a direct hook into telemarketing texts.

What did not change: the federal TCPA still applies exactly as before. The same text can violate the federal statute, chapter 304 and the DTPA at once; those claims are pleaded together, and the count of messages is the count for each. A licensed attorney decides how they are combined.

What a Texas Text Claim Needs

A claim under section 305.053 starts with a communication that violated one of the rules it references. In practice that means one of three fact patterns, or a combination.

The first is a text sent to a number on the Texas no-call list, or the national registry, by a seller with no exemption and no consent. The second is a marketing text sent with an autodialer or from a purchased list to a cell phone without the prior express written consent the federal rule requires; that is a TCPA violation, and section 305.053 lets a Texas recipient bring it in a Texas court. The third is a text that continues after you replied STOP, which is where knowing conduct, and the higher tier of damages, begins.

The sender's answer to all three is a consent record, and most lead-list consent does not survive inspection. What a valid consent record looks like shows what the sender must actually produce, and opt-out language that counts explains why the wording of your stop request matters when the sender argues you never opted out.

Why the STOP Reply Matters More Now

Under the federal rules, a text after a stop request is a violation without consent. Under the amended Texas framework, it is also evidence that the violation was knowing, which is the fact that moves the court's discretion toward the higher tier. That makes the STOP reply the single most valuable message in your thread, and unwanted texts and why STOP matters goes into the mechanics.

Reply STOP once, in that word, to the number that sent the text. Do not reply with anything else, do not click the link, and do not engage with the sender's follow-up. Screenshot the STOP reply with its timestamp and then screenshot every message that arrives afterward. If the sender switches to a new number, that is a new thread to capture and a sign of a campaign built to evade opt-outs.

Register on both lists. The national registry is free, the Texas list charges a small fee per number (check the current amount when you register), and a registered number turns a marketing text from a consent question into a list violation, which is easier to prove.

What to Keep From the First Text

Evidence habits are the same in Texas as anywhere, and they decide the count.

• Screenshot each message showing the sending number, the full text and the timestamp; never delete the thread.
• Keep the STOP reply and everything after it, in order.
• Download your carrier's message detail records monthly; they fix the dates and numbers independently of your handset.
• Record every link's destination and any company name the landing page reveals, without submitting anything.
• Note whether the sender is registered with the Texas Secretary of State; the public registry search is a two-minute check.

If the thread is long and you are not sure whether it adds up to a claim under either statute, the free 30-minute assessment is a quick way to have someone read it with you and say so plainly.

How Texas Compares With Other States

Texas is one of several states that have moved on texts, and the frameworks are not uniform. Florida requires a stop request and a 15-day cure window before a text claim exists. Virginia amended its Telephone Privacy Protection Act to reach text messages effective January 1, 2026. Oklahoma's Telephone Solicitation Act carries its own per-violation amount, trebled for willful or knowing violations, restricts calling hours and caps calls on the same subject at three in 24 hours. Washington went the other direction in 2026, reducing its per-message statutory amount and adding an actual-knowledge element.

The practical point is that the number's state matters. A Texas number under SB 140 sits under a framework with no cure window and a DTPA hook; a Florida number does not. Many other states layer their own statutes on top of the TCPA, and the figures vary and change, so a file should note where the number is registered and where the recipient lives.

Where MercPrivacy Fits

MercPrivacy is a data-privacy and unsolicited-contact defense firm in Houston, Texas. On a spam-text problem we build the evidence file, preserve the STOP reply and everything after it, identify the U.S. company behind the campaign through the links, landing pages and short codes, check the sender's Texas registration status, and count the messages against the consent the sender claims. We also trace how your number reached the list and submit removal and suppression requests to the sources, re-checking because listings return.

We are not a law firm and do not give legal advice. Whether a matter is pursued under the TCPA, chapter 304, the DTPA or all three is a decision for the licensed attorney who is engaged when a matter warrants it, and any settlement paperwork goes through that attorney. Our own investigative, documentation and administrative work is billed as a straightforward recurring service fee set out in writing before any work starts. More on the spam texts page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it illegal to send marketing texts in Texas without consent?

Since September 1, 2025, a marketing text to a Texas number is a telephone solicitation under the Texas Business and Commerce Code, so it is subject to the registration requirement, the Texas no-call list and the enforcement chapter, alongside the federal TCPA's consent rules. A text sent without the required consent, or to a number on the no-call list without an exemption, exposes the sender under both bodies of law. Verify the current text.

What is the penalty for telemarketing texts in Texas?

Section 305.053 provides a private action for the greater of a fixed statutory amount per violation or actual damages, and a court may raise that to the greater of three times the statutory amount per violation or three times actual damages for a knowing or intentional violation. The figures appear at the top of this article; they are the amounts the statute provides, not a prediction, and the Attorney General has separate remedies.

Does SB 140 apply to texts I received before September 1, 2025?

The amendments took effect on September 1, 2025, and statutes are generally applied to conduct after their effective date, so earlier texts are analyzed under the prior Texas framework and under the federal TCPA, which covered texts throughout. Keep the older messages regardless; they establish the campaign's history, and a licensed attorney will sort which rules govern which dates.

Do I still have a federal TCPA claim for a Texas spam text?

Yes. SB 140 added state remedies; it did not replace federal ones. An autodialed marketing text to a cell phone without prior express written consent violates the TCPA wherever the recipient lives, and section 305.053 lets a Texas recipient bring that federal violation in a Texas court alongside the state claims. The counts run in parallel.

Do I have to be on the Texas no-call list to have a claim?

No. The no-call list creates one kind of violation, a text to a listed number, but a text without the required consent violates the federal rule whether or not you registered, and a text after STOP is a violation on its own. Registering on both the Texas list and the national registry is still worth doing because a list violation is simpler to prove than a consent dispute.

This article is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. MercPrivacy is not a law firm; when a matter requires legal representation, a licensed attorney is engaged. Statutory figures are the amounts the statutes provide, not predictions of any outcome, and laws change — verify the current text before relying on it.