State Law
Maryland's Stop the Spam Calls Act
What is Maryland's Stop the Spam Calls Act?
Short answerThe Stop the Spam Calls Act of 2023 (Md. Code, Com. Law §§ 14-4501 to 14-4503) took effect on January 1, 2024. It requires prior express written consent for telephone solicitations that use an automated system for the selection or dialing of numbers or a recorded message, bars solicitation calls between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. in the called party's time zone, and caps calls at three in 24 hours to the same person on the same subject. A 2024 amendment added an express private action for damages up to $500 or actual damages, whichever is greater, up to three times that if willful or knowing.
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Maryland's Stop the Spam Calls Act is a compact mini-TCPA: three sections of the Commercial Law Article covering consent, calling hours, call frequency and caller ID. It runs through the Maryland Consumer Protection Act, and since April 2024 it has carried its own express private right of action.
How it got here
The General Assembly passed the Act in 2023 as SB 90 (Chapter 413, cross-filed as HB 37), with an effective date of January 1, 2024. Less than four months later, HB 1228 (Chapter 214 of 2024) amended it as an emergency measure, effective April 25, 2024. That bill exempted noncommercial public opinion research from the consent rule, wrote an express private action with a damages figure into § 14-4503, and barred waivers of the Act's requirements and remedies except through consent or a settlement.
What it requires
| Provision | Effect |
|---|---|
| § 14-4502(a)(3) | No telephone solicitation involving an automated system for the selection or dialing of numbers, or a recorded message, without prior express written consent. |
| § 14-4502(b) | Transmit the originating number and, where the carrier makes it available, the caller's name. No blocking, and no displaying a different number to hide identity. Showing the seller's name and customer service number is allowed. |
| § 14-4502(c)(1) | No solicitation calls between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. in the called party's time zone. |
| § 14-4502(c)(2) | No more than three calls to the same called party in 24 hours on the same subject, whatever numbers are used. |
| § 14-4503(a)(2) | Private action: damages up to $500 or actual damages, whichever is greater; up to 3x if willful or knowing. |
| § 14-4503(b) | A call to any Maryland area code is rebuttably presumed to reach a Maryland resident. |
Two drafting details deserve attention. First, the automated-system test is disjunctive: "selection or dialing". Florida narrowed its own statute to "selection and dialing" in 2023, so a system argued to fall outside Florida's test can still be inside Maryland's. Second, the written-consent definition in § 14-4501(d) is specific. The agreement must be signed (an electronic signature counts), name the number, state that the called party authorizes automated or recorded solicitations, and disclose that signing is not a condition of any purchase.
The exemptions only reach the consent rule
§ 14-4502(a)(1) lists exemptions: isolated transactions, qualifying nonprofits, established business-to-business sellers, repair contracts on goods already sold, single responses to a customer's inquiry, informational contacts with existing customers that turn into a solicitation at the customer's request, and public opinion research. By its own words it applies to "this subsection", meaning subsection (a). The quiet hours, the three-call cap and the caller-ID rules in subsections (b) and (c) carry no such list.
How it is enforced
A violation is an unfair, abusive or deceptive trade practice under Title 13, the Maryland Consumer Protection Act, subject to that Act's enforcement and penalty provisions (§ 14-4503(a)(1)). An aggrieved called party can also sue directly under § 14-4503(a)(2), through § 13-408. Fees are discretionary there, not automatic, which puts Maryland between Florida's prevailing-party fee rule and Oklahoma's silence. The Act also preserves the separate Public Utilities rules: § 8-205(c) bars a solicitor from blocking its number, with misdemeanor fines of up to $1,000 for a first offense and $5,000 after that.
The area-code presumption matters for anyone buying national lists. A Maryland area code is enough to presume the call reached a Maryland resident. The presumption is rebuttable, but the caller is the one who has to rebut it.
The older Maryland Telephone Solicitations Act
Searches for Maryland telephone law also surface the Maryland Telephone Solicitations Act (§§ 14-2201 to 14-2205). It governs the sale rather than the call. A contract arising from a merchant-initiated phone sale of consumer goods, services or realty is not enforceable against the consumer unless it is written, signed by the consumer, matches what was pitched and carries the statutory notice. No charge may hit the consumer's credit account before the signed contract comes back. It stacks with the Stop the Spam Calls Act rather than replacing it.
Quick check: calling Maryland numbers
Pick an answer to see whether it is right, and why.
What to actually do
Build to the tightest rule. For Maryland numbers that means dialing between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. local time, making no more than three attempts to the same person in any 24 hours on the same subject, obtaining consent that meets § 14-4501(d) before any automated or prerecorded outreach, and treating texts the same way. Keep an internal suppression list and keep caller ID truthful.
NumberBroom handles none of those Maryland-specific steps. It does not capture consent, schedule calls or scrub any state list, and its only registry check is the federal one, under your own SAN, on signed-in scrubs of up to 1,000 numbers. It runs carrier validation (line type, carrier, activity score) and TCPA litigator screening over a CSV in one job, removing and counting litigator matches, at $0.20 per number with a $5 minimum and no subscription. Check a number with the free carrier lookup, or see pricing.
Frequently asked questions
When did the Maryland Stop the Spam Calls Act take effect?
January 1, 2024. It was enacted in 2023 as SB 90 (Chapter 413) and approved on May 3, 2023. HB 1228 of 2024 (Chapter 214), an emergency bill, amended it effective on enactment, April 25, 2024, adding a public-opinion-research exemption, an express private right of action and an anti-waiver rule.
What are the damages under the Stop the Spam Calls Act?
Under § 14-4503(a)(2), a called party aggrieved by a violation may sue under § 13-408 to stop further violations and "to recover damages up to $500 or actual damages, whichever is greater". If the court finds the violation willful or knowing, it may award up to three times that amount.
Attorney fees are discretionary. Under § 13-408 a person awarded damages may seek them, and the court may award them. That differs from Florida's FTSA, where the prevailing party recovers fees.
Does the three-calls rule apply to every call?
It applies to telephone solicitations, including automated and recorded ones: no more than three times to the same called party in a 24-hour period on the same subject matter or issue, regardless of the telephone numbers used (§ 14-4502(c)(2)). Rotating caller IDs does not reset the count. The listed exemptions in § 14-4502(a)(1) apply only to the consent rule in subsection (a), not to the hours, frequency or caller-ID rules.
Does it cover text messages?
Treat SMS as in scope. The statute's definition of prior express written consent expressly covers solicitations delivered "by telephone call, text message, or voicemail" (§ 14-4501(d)(2)). The underlying definition of telephone solicitation, borrowed from Public Utilities § 8-205, speaks of communicating "by telephone" and does not mention texts by name.
What is the Maryland Telephone Solicitations Act?
A separate, older statute (Com. Law §§ 14-2201 to 14-2205) about sales made by phone, not about how calls are placed. A contract from a merchant-initiated telephone solicitation is unenforceable against the consumer unless it is in writing, signed by the consumer and carries the required terms and notice (§ 14-2203). The merchant may not charge the consumer's credit account until it receives the signed contract (§ 14-2204). Exemptions include existing customers and sales with a seven-day full-refund policy (§ 14-2202).
- Md. Code, Com. Law § 14-4501 -- definitions (Maryland General Assembly)
- Md. Code, Com. Law § 14-4502 -- restrictions on telephone solicitations
- Md. Code, Com. Law § 14-4503 -- enforcement and private action
- Md. Code, Com. Law § 13-408 -- private actions under the Consumer Protection Act
- Md. Code, Pub. Util. § 8-205 -- definition of telephone solicitation
- SB 90 (2023), Chapter 413 -- Stop the Spam Calls Act of 2023, chapter law
- HB 1228 (2024), Chapter 214 -- Exemptions and Remedies, bill record
- Md. Code, Com. Law § 14-2203 -- Maryland Telephone Solicitations Act, contract requirements