TCPA Compliance for Lead Buyers — What You Need to Know

What Is the TCPA?

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), enacted in 1991 and significantly expanded in 2015 and 2024, regulates how businesses may contact consumers by phone, text, and fax. For lead buyers in insurance, mortgage, solar, and debt verticals, the most relevant provision is the express written consent requirement for calls and texts to mobile numbers using an automated telephone dialing system (ATDS).

Penalties for TCPA violations range from $500 to $1,500 per call or text — and class action TCPA suits have resulted in eight-figure settlements for companies that purchased leads without proper consent documentation. TCPA compliance is not optional for any company operating a call center or texting leads.

What "Express Written Consent" Requires

Under the TCPA, express written consent for autodialed or prerecorded calls must:

• Be in writing (an electronic signature or form submission qualifies)
• Clearly authorize the specific seller or a clearly identified list of sellers
• Not be a condition of purchase of any goods or services
• Include the consumer's phone number

In 2023 the FCC adopted a "one-to-one consent" rule that would have required a consumer's consent to separately and specifically authorize each individual seller. That rule was vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC, January 24, 2025) and never took effect. The operative federal standard remains prior express written consent that clearly identifies the seller (or a clearly described list of sellers) authorized to contact the consumer, as described above.

How Dreamy Leads Handles Consent

Every lead in our network is generated with consent language that:

• Names Dreamy Leads and our buyer partner category explicitly
• States that the consumer may be contacted by telephone, even if their number is on the Do Not Call Registry
• Is presented in a visually distinct format on the same page as the submit button (not hidden in fine print or buried in a terms-of-service link)
• Is not a condition of receiving any information — the consumer can read our guides without consenting

Each consent event is logged with: the verbatim consent text displayed at the time of submission, the consumer's IP address, the timestamp (UTC), the URL of the page, and the lead ID. This record is retained for a minimum of 5 years and is available to buyers on written request.

Your Obligations as a Buyer

When you purchase a lead from Dreamy Leads, the consent record we provide covers your right to make the initial contact. However, you remain responsible for:

• Honoring DNC requests: If a consumer asks not to be called again, you must honor that request immediately and log it in your own DNC list.
• Call time restrictions: The TCPA prohibits calls before 8 AM or after 9 PM in the consumer's local time zone.
• Scrubbing against the National DNC Registry: Before calling a number, scrub against the FTC's National Do Not Call Registry. Leads in our network have consented to calls despite DNC registration, but your dialer system must maintain its own scrub cadence.
• State-specific laws: Florida has its own telemarketing statute (Chapter 501, Part IV) that in some cases is stricter than the federal TCPA. Ensure your compliance team has reviewed Florida-specific requirements.
• Record retention: Keep your own record of when and how you contacted each lead. The FCC expects companies to be able to demonstrate the consent chain for any contact if challenged.

How to Handle a TCPA Complaint

If a consumer or their attorney contacts you claiming a TCPA violation, request the lead ID from the complaint and contact us immediately at Dreamy@dreamyleads.com. We will provide the full consent record for that lead ID within 24 hours. The consent record — including the verbatim consent text, IP, timestamp, and page URL — is your primary defense documentation.