Compliance · TCPA
TCPA compliance for websites
TCPA compliance for a website means the forms that collect phone numbers capture the right kind of consent before marketing texts or calls go out, because the Telephone Consumer Protection Act prices violations at $500 to $1,500 per call or text, multiplied across every recipient. Complidar checks the consent language and disclosures on every phone-collecting form it finds, the same surface a plaintiff's firm screenshots first.
Why a website problem, not just a texting problem
TCPA cases are won and lost on consent records, and the consent is captured on your website: the checkout checkbox, the 'get updates' field, the appointment-reminder opt-in. Marketing texts require prior express written consent: a clear disclosure that the person agrees to receive automated marketing messages, that consent isn't a condition of purchase, with the signature/affirmative act tied to that disclosure. A phone field with no disclosure, or consent language that doesn't match what you actually send, is the gap suits walk through.
The damages math is the threat: $500 per negligent violation, up to $1,500 per willful one, no cap. Wakefield v. ViSalus put it on display: 1.8 million prerecorded calls at statutory rates produced a $925M jury verdict. Texting programs reach class size fast because every message is a violation candidate.
What the plaintiff's firm looks for
The screenshot that starts the case is usually a form: a phone-number field whose disclosure is missing, vague, pre-checked, or contradicted by the messages later sent. Quiet-hours rules, sender identification, and honoring opt-outs ('STOP') matter once messages flow, but the website's consent capture is the foundation everything else is judged against, and it's fully visible from outside.
What Complidar checks for TCPA
- Every form that collects a phone number, across up to 120 pages
- Express-written-consent disclosure presence and proximity to the phone field
- 'Consent is not a condition of purchase' language where marketing consent is bundled with checkout
- Pre-checked consent boxes (a dark pattern and a consent defect at once)
- Message-frequency, data-rates, and STOP/HELP disclosures where texting programs are advertised
- Privacy-policy consistency: does the policy's phone-number section match what the forms collect
Honest limits: A scan verifies the consent capture your site presents. It cannot see your texting platform's send logs, your consent database, or whether opt-outs are honored downstream. Those are records questions for counsel. The scan settles what the form said when consent was captured, which is where most TCPA disputes start.
TCPA questions
We only text appointment reminders. Does the TCPA still apply?
Informational messages like appointment reminders need consent too, though not the 'written' marketing standard. Providing a number for that purpose generally covers it. The trap is drift: when reminder lists start receiving promotions, the consent captured no longer matches the messages sent. The scan flags forms whose disclosure doesn't cover marketing use.
What does a TCPA violation actually cost a small business?
Statutory damages are $500–$1,500 per text or call with no cap, so exposure scales with list size: a 2,000-person list texted weekly for a year is six figures of theoretical liability per campaign defect. Public settlements skew enormous (Wakefield: $925M) because classes get certified. Small-business cases settle quietly for the cost asymmetry.
Is a checkbox enough for SMS marketing consent?
An unchecked-by-default box tied to a clear disclosure (automated marketing texts, not a purchase condition, frequency and rates noted) is the standard pattern. A pre-checked box or a bare phone field is not consent under the written-consent rules. The scan checks the box state and the disclosure text together.
TCPA is 1 of the 22 checks in every scan · up to 120 pages · no card
Last updated 2026-06-11 · Informational, not legal advice: how to read this