Calling rules by market

Last updated: 2026-08-25

A practical guide to the rules behind the Acceptable Use and Calling Policy. It is written to be useful rather than exhaustive, it is not legal advice, and the law moves - if you are about to do something large or unusual, take advice on it. What applies is decided by where the person you are calling is, not where your store is.

1. The one rule that decides everything

Every market draws the same line in the same place: is this call about something already happening between you and this customer, or is it about getting them to buy?

1.1Service calls - a failed delivery, a declined payment, an order that needs confirming. Not direct marketing. No marketing permission needed anywhere. They still need the AI disclosure.
1.2Marketing calls - abandoned basket, win-back, upsell, back in stock. Need prior permission in the US, the UK and the EU alike.

The distinction is about the purpose of the call, not the wording of the opening line. A delivery-problem call that ends with a discount offer is a marketing call, and describing it as a service message does not change that.

2. United States

2.1. Consent

Since February 2024 the FCC has treated an AI-generated voice as an “artificial voice” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. That triggers the full consent regime for every call the assistant makes.
For marketing calls to a mobile number you need prior express written consent: a clear agreement, in writing or captured electronically, that names you and says calls may use an automated or artificial voice.
For service calls, prior express consent is enough, and giving you the number for that purpose generally provides it.
Damages are $500 to $1,500 per call, with no cap, and the claims are routinely brought as class actions. This is the single largest legal exposure in outbound calling anywhere.
One appeal court - covering Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi - held in early 2026 that only prior express consent, not written consent, is needed for artificial-voice calls. It binds three states. We do not build to it, and you should not rely on it.

2.2. Everything else

Federal and state do-not-call registries must be screened, with a narrow exception for your own existing customers.
Calls only between 8am and 9pm in the customer’s local time.
Several states require the AI to be disclosed: California requires a verbal disclosure on automated calls, and Texas requires it within the first 30 seconds. Putting it in the opening line satisfies both.
Business text messages to US numbers need carrier registration, which takes around two weeks and requires a working website matching your store name.

3. United Kingdom

3.1Regulation 19 of PECR bans automated marketing calls without prior specific consent. The ICO treats a two-way AI voice agent as an automated calling system, so the softer rules for live human calls do not apply.
3.2The consent has to name you. Generic consent bought from a list broker is not valid, and neither is the “soft opt-in” that works for email.
3.3Since the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, PECR fines match UK GDPR: £17.5m or 4% of worldwide turnover. The ICO has fined companies specifically for using avatar-style voice software that led people to think they were speaking to a named human.
3.4Screen against the TPS and CTPS registers, re-checked every 28 days.
3.5Ofcom requires a valid, dialable number on every call. Persistent silent or abandoned calls are treated as misuse of the network, with penalties up to £2m in their own right - and where a call is abandoned, an informative message must play instead of silence, with no re-dial inside 72 hours unless a person is guaranteed available.
3.6There is no UK AI Act. The duty to tell people they are speaking with a machine comes from the fairness and transparency principles of the UK GDPR and from consumer law. Same outcome, different reason - so do not tell a UK customer that the EU AI Act requires it.

4. European Union and Lithuania

4.1The ePrivacy Directive requires prior consent for automated marketing calls, implemented in Lithuania through the Law on Electronic Communications.
4.2Since 2 August 2026, Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires people to be told when they are interacting with an AI system. As the provider of that system, designing the disclosure in is our obligation, not yours - which is why it is not a setting you can switch off.
4.3Member states go further in places. Germany requires express consumer consent under its unfair competition law, and France now requires prior opt-in for all consumer telephone marketing.
4.4Consent must be freely given, specific, informed and as easy to withdraw as to give - which is why the assistant offers an opt-out on every marketing call rather than waiting to be asked.

5. Recording, country by country

Recording rules by market
Where	What is required	What this means in Otengo
United States	Around eleven states require every party to consent, and four more are unsettled. Where a call crosses state lines the stricter rule generally applies.	The recording notice in your greeting, with the caller continuing the call, is what makes this work. Do not remove it.
United Kingdom	Reasonable efforts to inform everyone that calls may be recorded. A privacy policy is not enough - it has to be in the call.	Same notice, same mechanism.
EU and Lithuania	People must be informed, and recording must be necessary and proportionate.	Same notice. Keep retention as short as you can justify.
Germany	Recording someone's non-public speech without permission is a criminal offence, not a compliance failure.	Keep recording switched off for German customers. A notice is not sufficient there.

6. What Otengo enforces for you

Some of the above is handled automatically, whatever your settings say. It is not a complete compliance programme - the permission itself is still yours to obtain - but it removes the failures that are easiest to make by accident.

6.1The AI disclosure is in every greeting and cannot be removed.
6.2Recording is off until your greeting says calls are recorded, and switches itself off if that wording disappears.
6.3Calling hours are applied in the recipient’s time zone, not yours, so a campaign cannot ring someone at 3am because of a time difference you forgot.
6.4Anyone who opts out is suppressed immediately, across calls and texts, permanently, above every other setting.
6.5Permission is checked per call, at the moment of dialling - against the live record, never a list snapshot taken when the campaign started. Somebody who withdraws consent mid-campaign is not called.
6.6Selecting “service message” on a marketing flow is blocked, because it is the one misconfiguration that turns a compliant setup into an unlawful one silently.

If you are unsure whether something is allowed, ask before you send it: info@otengo.com.