What's the Statute of Limitations for a TCPA Claim?

The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act carries a four-year statute of limitations, borrowed from the federal catch-all limitations period at 28 U.S.C. § 1658, which applies to any federal statute enacted after December 1, 1990 that doesn't specify its own limitations period. Since the TCPA itself (1991) doesn't set one, courts apply that four-year federal default.

The Clock Resets With Every Violation

Each unlawful call or text under the TCPA is treated as its own separate violation with its own four-year filing deadline — not one deadline tied to the first violation in a pattern of ongoing calls. That means a business that's been making non-compliant calls for years isn't shielded from liability on the recent ones just because the earliest calls are now outside the window; a plaintiff can still sue over every violation that occurred within the trailing four years of filing, even if the overall calling pattern goes back much further.

Why This Differs From Related State Laws

Some state-level telemarketing statutes modeled on the TCPA carry shorter limitations periods than the federal law. One Maryland appellate ruling found that TCPA-style claims brought under state procedural rules weren't treated as a statutory "specialty" claim, resulting in a three-year limitations period for that specific state-law context — a full year shorter than the federal four-year rule. Advertisers facing a claim should confirm which statute and jurisdiction actually governs before assuming the federal four-year window applies.

What Can Extend the Window

• Ongoing violations: Because each call starts its own four-year clock, a long-running campaign effectively has a rolling filing deadline rather than one that closes entirely after four years from the first call.
• Bankruptcy proceedings: If a limitations period hasn't already expired by the time a bankruptcy petition is filed, a trustee may be able to commence an action within an extended window tied to the bankruptcy case.

Why This Matters Operationally, Not Just Legally

A four-year window means call and text records, consent documentation, and opt-out logs tied to any marketing campaign need to be retained well past the campaign's end date — a plaintiff can file a claim over a text sent nearly four years earlier, long after most marketing teams have stopped thinking about that campaign's compliance paperwork.

Bottom Line

Keep consent records, call logs, and opt-out documentation for at least four years past each campaign's last message, since that's the full window during which a TCPA claim tied to any individual violation can still be filed.

Sources: 28 U.S.C. § 1658; 47 U.S.C. § 227; legal analysis summarized by Jimerson Firm, "TCPA Fines, Damages, and the Statute of Limitations: What a Lawsuit Can Cost Your Business" (jimersonfirm.com), and Sessions Law, "6-Year-Old TCPA Calls and Still Not Time Barred" (sessions.legal).