B2B Telemarketing Compliance: 5 Myths That Could Cost You

Many B2B marketers assume telemarketing rules don’t apply to them. No TCPA, no DNC list, no problem. But you know what they say about assumptions.

During the Fact vs Fiction: Debunking B2B Telemarketing Compliance Myths webinar, attorneys Michele Shuster and Chris Wager of Mac Murray & Shuster LLP explained that B2B calls are on the compliance radar and often show up in court.

Over the course of the session, Shuster and Wager unpacked five of the most common myths circulating in the B2B telemarketing space. They laid out exactly how the law applies — from robocalls to consent revocation — and how you can reduce your risk. 

Myth #1: B2B calls are exempt from the TCPA

Regulated technology regulations apply to both B2C and B2B calls. “There is absolutely no distinction there,” Wager said.

The TCPA applies to how you make the call and what type of phone number you’re dialing, not whether the recipient is a commercial contact.

Regulated technology includes autodialers, ringless voicemail, soundboard systems, prerecorded or artificial voice messages, and yes, text messages count too. “When we say ‘calls,’ we're saying both, because text messages are treated as calls,” Wager clarified.

The risk of mixed-use numbers

The TCPA applies to all wireless numbers, but not all its rules apply equally across the board. Certain provisions, like those involving the National Do Not Call Registry (DNC), apply only to numbers classified as residential.

But there’s a problem here. Many professionals use the same mobile phone for work and personal calls. If that number is on the DNC, courts presume it's for residential use, even if your call intent was purely B2B.

“You may have a good argument down the road to defeat this rebuttable presumption,” Wager said, “but the problem is...you could be litigating a case for six to nine months before you can even address the question.”

That kind of delay costs time and money and can damage your brand long before you get to defend your case. “The absolute safest course of action would be…to scrub against the DNC registry even if you're doing a B2B calling campaign,” Wager said.

Marketing intent matters

Now, here’s where it gets even trickier: what you think is a non-marketing call might still land you in hot water if there's any sales intent.

“It’s important to err on the side of a call being a marketing communication whenever there is an underlying sales goal there,” Wager said. “Because the courts have been clear that anything that even has kind of a marketing tinge to it they'll put in that bucket.”

If the real goal is to win back a customer or lead them to a sale, you’re in marketing territory, and that bumps up the level of consent you need.

Even calls with a neutral purpose, like market research, can quickly cross the line. Shuster explained that if a call starts with research but has any contingency in place for handling sales inquiries, you're likely already in marketing territory.

“Let’s say that you are calling for market research and someone is so excited that they really want to buy that product,” she said. “Best to refer them to another place, like to a website...You really want to make sure you try to segregate those types of things, or just treat them as marketing calls.”

Myth #2: If a lead gen partner collected consent, we’re covered

This one sounds reasonable. You work with a lead provider, and they say they’ve got consent, so you figure, “Great, let’s dial.”

But, as with most things in telemarketing compliance, it’s not that simple. 

Consent from a lead provider might not be valid or might not cover your calls. Under the TCPA, it’s not one-size-fits-all. “The consent that’s required is for the ultimate seller of the product, not the lead generator, not the publisher, not the call center that’s placing the outbound calls,” Wager explained.

Verbal consent isn’t enough

If you're relying on verbal consent, that’s a problem, especially after Bradley v. DentalPlans.com. This case shook the lead generation industry.

“This [case] dealt with…how you had to keep records of consent that’s collected, and specifically, whether you could collect consent through a verbal communication,” Shuster said.

The ruling drew new attention to how consent is gathered and documented, including through online forms. Many marketers assume a simple checkbox is enough, but under e-sign rules, that won’t hold up. “E-sign is very specific that you have to give those e-sign disclosures in writing before you can give the other disclosures for whatever it is you’re trying to get consent for,” Shuster said.

In practice, that means you need a proper two-step flow: first, a written electronic disclosure that complies with e-sign requirements, and then the actual consent checkbox. Skip that sequence, and your consent may not be valid.

Use reputable lead sources

Even if the paperwork looks good, a shady lead source can put you at risk. Wager has seen cases where the lead provider scraped old directories or outdated listings, and that’s a compliance minefield. 

“When you search the phone number, you find out this phone number is listed on a MapQuest listing for a restaurant that's seven years old, and that’s the only place you see it. That leads me to wonder, ‘Hey, this lead source is just crawling the internet and finding these relationships between businesses and phone numbers that aren't really there,’” he said.

Shuster’s advice on this is simple: “You’ve really got to do your due diligence on anybody that's providing you with those types of [lead] lists because you live or die…on whether you can support and substantiate what's been provided to you in those lists. It’s really important that you make sure that you work with quality lead generators and that you do your due diligence.”

By “due diligence,” Shuster means knowing exactly where the data came from and being able to prove that proper consent was collected, which is something she and Wager repeatedly emphasized as essential for defending against complaints or litigation.

Next up: the robocall myth that trips up even the most careful marketers.

Myth #3: We don’t use robocalls, so we’re safe

This myth often gets marketers in trouble because many businesses are using robocall technologies without realizing it. 

“This comes up a lot,” Wager said. “Sometimes there is a live agent call, but then when someone doesn't pick up, they have integrated within their dialer some function where it's going to leave the voicemail drop for people who don't answer,” he explained. 

“They say, ‘No, we have live agents. We're not doing prerecorded messages.’ But when someone doesn't answer, if you are using prerecorded voicemail, then that will be a robocall.”

[A robocall is not necessarily illegal, just regulated under the TCPA. Call centers need to understand where consent is required or not for prerecorded/artificial voice messages (regulated technology) as well as consult with their legal counsel regarding ATDS (also regulated technology) determinations.]

Make sure agents aren’t going rogue

And this risk doesn’t just come from software. It can come from your own employees cutting corners without realizing the legal fallout.

“I've had cases where agents — without telling anybody else — set this [voicemail drop] up because they didn't want to sit there and leave the same voicemail over and over again,” Wager said.

Even if it’s your own voice and you’re the one pressing the button to leave the voicemail, it’s still a prerecorded message, and it still counts under TCPA rules. “This [issue] is something that one of the assistant directors at the FTC called me specifically to point out to make sure that we got that out to the industry,” Shuster said.

Personalize your scripts to avoid issues

Wager also pointed out that even live messages can trigger compliance questions if they’re scripted or robotic.

He’s seen lawsuits where plaintiffs claimed they received prerecorded messages because the voicemails all sounded identical, didn’t include their name, and used generic scripts — but the voicemails actually came from live agents.

To head off this issue, Wager recommends personalizing your scripts. That way, “a plaintiff's lawyer or a demandant [won’t] go down that path of just assuming that the message is prerecorded.” 

On top of prerecorded — or seemingly prerecorded — messages, B2B companies also get into trouble with time-of-day restrictions. 

Myth #4: Time-of-day rules don’t apply to B2B

Unlike the other myths, Wager said this one is “mainly busted, but not completely.” There’s some ambiguity here because the TCPA time-of-day regulations are limited to "residential telephone subscribers," but there's a subsection that extends those regulations to wireless numbers. 

"It's very convoluted, but our takeaway is that this issue [is similar to] the Do Not Call registry issue. It's the mixed use issue that could pull wireless numbers into this issue of calling time restrictions applying." 

The takeaway from Wager: "Unless you have a compelling business reason otherwise, the best course of action is to follow the calling time restrictions."

Another problem that comes up when talking about time-of-day restrictions is area code confusion. 

Shuster noted that area codes no longer reflect actual locations, making time-zone compliance tricky. “Some marketers are deciding to only make calls between that allowable time that meets all of the calling time restrictions, which is 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern time,” she said.

State-level calling time restrictions add more complexity

The patchwork of state-level regulations adds another set of challenges for B2B campaigns.

Some states can temporarily ban outbound marketing during declared emergencies. States often post these notices on government websites, and regulators assume businesses will check. If you don’t and call anyway, you could be penalized.

So, don’t assume that B2B gives you a free pass to ignore time restrictions. Between wireless numbers, area code ambiguity, and state-by-state variations, the only safe move is to play by the rules.

“This applies to text messaging too, in case we haven't really pounded that in,” Shuster said. “Some folks think that this is just for calls, but it’s text messages as well.”

Myth #5: Opt-outs are the vendor’s responsibility

Keeping track of when you contact someone is only part of the equation. You also need a clear plan for what happens when they ask you to stop. 

“Once that revocation occurs, it doesn't matter if you're B2B or B2C. That consent is revoked and must be honored because the consent that you otherwise would have relied upon is now gone,” Wager said.

You have 10 business days to honor an opt-out, down from the old 30-day window. If you're using automated systems or text platforms, regulators expect even faster action.

It’s also important to understand that people can revoke consent through any reasonable means. That could be a call where someone says “stop calling” or “take me off your list,” or a text that says “stop,” “opt out,” or “unsubscribe.” If the message gets the point across, you’re on the hook to stop contacting them.

And, unless they say otherwise, that opt-out applies to both calls and texts, and it covers anything that needs consent, like calls using prerecorded or artificial voice.

The takeaway: B2B ≠ exempt

Targeting businesses doesn’t mean you're exempt. The risks are real, and so is the litigation.

Often, the issue isn’t what you intended to do; it’s what you failed to verify. You can’t assume a phone number is for business use only. You can’t trust that a lead generator got consent the right way. And you definitely can’t wait until court to figure out if your dialer software settings count as regulated technology.

“You should have that type of substantiation at the time you're making the telephone calls,” said Shuster. “If not, you could have some pretty serious issues.”

The bottom line? If your B2B campaigns are built on outdated assumptions about exemptions and compliance shortcuts, it’s time to rethink your strategy.

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