New York telemarketing & SMS rules for insurance agents

New York’s calling window is 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the customer’s location — the same hours as the federal rules — unless the customer has given express consent to a call at a different time (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 399-z(2); 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1); 16 CFR 310.4(c)). Unlike federal law, New York says no person shall act as a telemarketer without first receiving a certificate of registration from the Secretary of State (§ 399-pp(3)(a)); employees of telemarketers and the persons listed in § 399-pp(10)(a) are exempt from registration. A person engaged in a business or occupation that is licensed, registered, chartered, certified or incorporated with or by any state or federal agency is exempt from the $500 fee and $25,000 bond, but § 399-pp(10-a) does not exempt it from registering. Section 399-z also covers sales texts, bans knowingly making unsolicited sales calls into areas under a declared emergency, and requires a signed written agreement before prerecorded sales calls.

New York regulates telephone solicitation under the New York General Business Law telemarketing provisions: § 399-z (telemarketing and do-not-call), § 399-pp (Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act) and § 399-p (automatic dialing-announcing devices) (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law §§ 399-p, 399-pp, 399-z), which layers requirements on top of the federal TCPA. Federal law is a floor, not a ceiling: where the two differ, the stricter rule governs.

Last reviewed 2026-09-14.

What time can I call in New York?

8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the customer’s location. Section 399-z(2): "No telemarketer or seller shall engage in telemarketing at any time other than between 8:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M. at the location of the customer unless the customer has given their express consent to the call at a different time." Section 399-pp(7)(d) sets the same window for telemarketing "to a person's residence." No Sunday or holiday rule was found in §§ 399-p, 399-pp or 399-z.

What consent does New York require before the first call or text?

For prerecorded calls, a signed written agreement. Section 399-z(6) bars any telemarketing sales call "by means of a technology that delivers a pre-recorded message" unless the customer has given an express written agreement that was obtained after a clear and conspicuous disclosure of its purpose, was not required as a condition of purchase, shows the customer’s willingness to receive calls from a specific seller, and includes the customer’s telephone number and signature. No general prior-consent requirement for live calls was found in § 399-z; instead, unsolicited telemarketing sales calls to numbers that have been on the national do-not-call registry for 31 days are prohibited (§ 399-z(5)). A call is not “unsolicited” if it responds to "an express written or verbal request by the customer" or is made in connection with an established business relationship that neither party has ended and the customer has not asked to stop (§ 399-z(1)(k)). Separately, a telemarketer or seller may not transmit, share or otherwise make available contact information that a customer provided to it — including name, telephone number or email address — to any other person or entity without the customer’s express agreement in writing or in electronic format, unless otherwise required by law or pursuant to a lawful subpoena or court order (§ 399-z(10)).

Does New York treat texting differently from calling?

Yes, under § 399-z. A “telemarketing sales call” includes an “electronic messaging text” (§ 399-z(1)(j)), defined as "real-time or near real-time non-voice messages in text form over communications networks" (§ 399-z(1)(n)), and a “telemarketer” includes a person who makes "electronic messaging texts" (§ 399-z(1)(h)). The § 399-z hours rule, do-not-call rule and emergency-area ban therefore reach sales texts. Section 399-pp is narrower: its definition of telemarketing "does not include the solicitation of sales through any media other than by telephone calls" (§ 399-pp(2)(k)), and no reference to texts was found in that section.

Does New York have its own do-not-call list?

New York’s do-not-call ban is keyed to the national registry. Section 399-z(4)(b) authorizes the Department of State to have the federal national “do-not-call” registry "serve as the New York state no telemarketing sales calls statewide registry provided for by this section." Unsolicited telemarketing sales calls to a number that has been on the national registry for 31 days are prohibited (§ 399-z(5)). Each call must also offer the customer the option to be added to the seller’s entity-specific do-not-call list (§ 399-z(2)(b), (9)). Under § 399-z(15), a person is not liable for violating § 399-z if they obtained a version of the registry from the Federal Trade Commission no more than 31 days before the call and, as a routine business practice, had established, implemented and updated written policies and procedures on the section’s requirements before the call; trained their personnel in those requirements; and maintain and can produce records demonstrating compliance.

Do I need to register to solicit in New York?

Yes, unless an exemption applies. Section 399-pp(3)(a): "No person shall act as a telemarketer without first having received a certificate of registration from the secretary as provided in this section." Employees of telemarketers are exempt from that requirement, as are the persons listed in § 399-pp(10)(a): the state and its municipalities, the United States, degree-granting institutions, retail businesses that have operated in New York for at least three years under the same name and meet the conditions stated there, and not-for-profit and charitable organizations. The application fee is $500 (§ 399-pp(3)(f)), a $25,000 bond, letter of credit or certificate of deposit must be filed (§ 399-pp(4)(a), (c)), and a certificate lasts two years (§ 399-pp(3)(d)). A person required to register who is not in compliance may not enforce any agreement or seek payment for goods and services offered through telemarketing (§ 399-pp(3)(i)). For licensed insurance agents, see the exemption field below.

Are licensed insurance agents exempt in New York?

No exemption from § 399-z was found. Under § 399-pp, being licensed lifts only the fee and bond: § 399-pp(10-a) exempts "A person engaged in a business or occupation which is licensed, registered, chartered, certified or incorporated with or by any state or federal agency" from "the fee and bonding requirements" in § 399-pp(3)(f) and (4). It does not lift the registration requirement itself, the disclosures, the hours rule or the other § 399-pp rules. The exemption carries a proviso: a person not licensed, registered, chartered, certified or incorporated with any New York state or federal agency must submit evidence to the Secretary of State of any such license, registration, charter, certification or incorporation issued by an agency or governmental entity in New York or any other state. Two exemptions in § 399-pp(10)(b) remove calls from all of § 399-pp, though not from § 399-z: calls where the sale is not completed, and payment is not required, "until after a face-to-face sales presentation by a telemarketer, or a meeting between a telemarketer and customer" (§ 399-pp(10)(b)(2)), and calls received by a telemarketer that were initiated by a customer and are not the result of any solicitation by that telemarketer (§ 399-pp(10)(b)(3)). Counsel should confirm how these exemptions apply to a particular producer and sales process.

What are the penalties in New York?

Section 399-z: where it is determined after a hearing that a person violated the section, the Secretary of State may assess a fine "not to exceed twenty thousand dollars for each violation" (§ 399-z(14)(a)). Section 399-pp: every violation is a deceptive act and practice subject to enforcement under General Business Law article 22-A, and where a court determines a violation occurred "it may impose a civil penalty of not less than one thousand dollars nor more than two thousand dollars for each violation" (§ 399-pp(11)(a), (b)); separately, if the Secretary determines that an applicant or any of its principals falls within a ground listed in § 399-pp(5)(a), such as violating § 399-pp, the Secretary may deny the application, refuse to renew, suspend or revoke the certificate, or in lieu thereof assess a fine not to exceed $1,000 per violation. Knowingly acting as a telemarketer without registration is a class B misdemeanor (§ 399-pp(12)). Section 399-p: in an attorney general action, a court may impose a civil penalty of not more than $2,000 per call, up to $20,000 for calls within a continuous 72-hour period, for violations of § 399-p(3), (4) or (5) (§ 399-p(8)). A person who receives a call violating § 399-p(3), (4) or (5) may sue for actual damages or $50, whichever is greater, and the court "may, in its discretion, increase the award of damages to an amount not to exceed three times the actual damages up to one thousand dollars" for a willful or knowing violation, and may award reasonable attorney fees to a prevailing plaintiff (§ 399-p(9)). No private right of action was found in the text of § 399-z.

Controlling statute

New York General Business Law telemarketing provisions: § 399-z (telemarketing and do-not-call), § 399-pp (Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act) and § 399-p (automatic dialing-announcing devices) — N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law §§ 399-p, 399-pp, 399-z

Other things that change the answer

Each telemarketing sales call must give, at the beginning and no later than 30 seconds in, the telemarketer’s name and the person it calls for, the option to join the seller’s do-not-call list (these two first), whether the call is being recorded, the purpose of the call, and the goods or services for which a fee will be charged (§ 399-z(2)). It is unlawful to knowingly make an unsolicited telemarketing sales call to any person in a county, city, town or village under a declared state of emergency or disaster emergency (§ 399-z(5-a); § 399-pp(7)(f)). Prerecorded-message calls must include an automated opt-out that adds the number to the seller’s do-not-call list (§ 399-z(7), (8)), and an automatic dialing-announcing device may not use a random or sequential number generator (§ 399-p(4)). Telemarketers and sellers must keep records of their telemarketing activities for 24 months (§ 399-z(11)). Under § 399-z, “telemarketing” means a plan, program or campaign involving more than one telephone call or electronic messaging text (§ 399-z(1)(i)); under § 399-pp, one involving more than one telephone call (§ 399-pp(2)(k)).

Sources

• N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 399-z — Telemarketing; no telemarketing sales calls statewide registryprimary source
• N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 399-pp — Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Actprimary source
• N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 399-p — Automatic dialing-announcing devices and consumer telephone callsprimary source
• 47 CFR 64.1200 — Delivery restrictions (eCFR)primary source
• 16 CFR 310.4 — Abusive telemarketing acts or practices (eCFR)primary source

How APEX enforces these rules on every send

APEX evaluates each outbound message and call before it leaves the platform. Quiet hours are applied in the contact's local time rather than the agent's, DNC scrubbing runs against federal, state, internal, and litigator lists, and every allow-or-block decision is written to an immutable audit log. See security & compliance for the full guardrail set.

Configuring a platform correctly does not by itself make a campaign lawful. You remain responsible for your consent records and your calling practices.